* South Korean won leads charge
* Asia FX gains for first time in over 1-week
* U.S. dollar softens; Thai baht only outlier

By Roushni Nair
       April 18 (Reuters) - Asian emerging market currencies
recovered some lost ground on Thursday, with the South Korean
won gaining the most, as the greenback consolidated gains with
investors slowly adapting to expectations of U.S. interest rates
staying higher for longer.
    Helping to boost emerging market currencies were comments
coming out of the first trilateral finance dialogue held by the
U.S., Japan and South Korea on Wednesday, with the three allies
agreeing to "consult closely" on foreign exchange markets. 
    The won advanced over 1% and the Philippine peso
 rose 0.4% against the dollar, both currencies marking
their biggest single day percentage gain since March 21. The
Malaysian ringgit and the Singapore dollar
followed suit to gain 0.4% and 0.2%, respectively. 
    Emerging markets have taken a beating this week, with
currencies still near multi-month lows, after global investors
readjusted bets on the timing of any monetary policy easing from
the Federal Reserve as strong U.S. data and statements from
policymakers indicated the war against inflation is not over. 
    "It may not be a 1985 Plaza Accord but a G7 statement
commenting on FX moves is good enough to setup a psychological
resistance for USD," said Christopher Wong, currency strategist
at OCBC. 
    The Indonesian rupiah, worst performer so far this
week, has already lost more than 2% after Fed comments added to
the dollar's safe-asset appeal and triggered a risk sell-off. 
     Indonesia's high-yielding bond market has also lost appeal
due to currency volatility and the wafer-thin spreads it offers
over dollar markets, with market participants now pricing in the
possibility that Bank Indonesia (BI) will start hiking rates. 
    Analysts at Barclays expect BI to hike interest rates when
they meet to review policy settings on April 24 in an attempt to
arrest the rupiah's decline. 
    "We think a hike is likely to have more value in terms of
its signalling effect rather than its immediate impact on the
IDR. Rate cuts will likely only start in Q1 25," Barclays
analysts said in a note. 
    In India, the rupee traded largely flat while
stocks in Mumbai were marginally up by 0.2%. The country
is set to begin the world's largest general elections on Friday 
with nearly a billion people eligible to choose 543 members of
the lower house of parliament. 
    Bucking the trend, Thailand's baht eased marginally
by 0.2%, and stocks in Bangkok rose by 0.3%. 
    J.P. Morgan, however, has revised down its target for SETI
to 1,500 from 1,700 due to outflow pressures over the shift in
Fed's rate cut bets and currency depreciation.
    Thai stocks had lost over 15% in value in 2023 and are down
about 3% so far this year.
    Equities in Manila, Seoul and Singapore
 added more than 1% each. 
    
    
    HIGHLIGHTS:    
    ** Indonesian 10-year benchmark yields fall 3.1 basis points
to 6.946%
    ** BOJ's Noguchi says its short-term policy rate adjustment
likely to be slow
    
    
  Asia stock indexes and                                   
 currencies at 0447 GMT                               
 COUNTRY  FX RIC        FX     FX    INDEX    STOCKS  STOCK
                     DAILY  YTD %            DAILY %  S YTD
                         %                                %
 Japan               +0.06  -8.57               0.48  14.59
 China                                              
 India               +0.01  -0.38               0.30   2.23
 Indones             +0.19  -4.88               0.37  -1.59
 ia                                                   
 Malaysi             +0.36  -3.83               0.25   6.16
 a                                                    
 Philipp             +0.36  -2.93               1.28   1.28
 ines                                                 
 S.Korea                                            
 Singapo             +0.13  -2.91               1.23  -1.44
 re                                                   
 Taiwan              +0.33  -5.05               0.44  13.22
 Thailan             -0.15  -7.03               0.29  -3.18
 d                                                    
 
    

    
 (Reporting by Roushni Nair in Bengaluru; Additional reporting
by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; Editing by Tom Hogue)