* Taiwan dollar, Chinese yuan fall
* Indonesian rupiah up slightly before CPI
* Malaysian markets closed for holiday

By Archishma Iyer
       Feb 1 (Reuters) - Asian currencies were mixed on Thursday as investors
digested the U.S. Federal Reserves' indications that it will not cut rates in
March even as the central bank signalled policy easing was on the cards for the
rest of the year. 
    The dollar was boosted overnight after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell
pushed back on the idea of a U.S. interest rate cut as soon as March, with
investors now pricing in the May 1 meeting for the central bank to deliver its
first cut.
    At 0400 GMT, the dollar index - the greenback's measure against six major
rivals - was at 103.52, little changed from the previous day but near a
seven-week high.
    "Fed's rate cuts uncertainty could remain the key factor that affect Asian
assets over the near term. I think it's hard to be quite bullish on Asian assets
which could move sideways," Poon Panichpibool, a markets strategist with
Krungthai Bank said. 
    The Taiwan dollar and the yuan fell more than 0.1% each,
while the Singapore dollarremained flat. 
    The rupiah was slightly up, while Indonesian stocks rose
0.3%, ahead of a key inflation report, where it is expected that price pressures
have likely eased.   
    "On inflation, policymakers appear clearly more comfortable compared to a
few months ago. Headline inflation of around 2.5% this year is seen as
manageable," analysts from Bank of America said in a note. 
    The rupiah has emerged as one of the weaker currencies in emerging Asia,
dropping more 2.3% on a year-to-date basis in light of a political instability
in Southeast Asia's largest economy, ahead of legislative and presidential
elections later this month.  
    "The situation is still very fluid and there could be further headwinds if
we do not see a clear first round winner and market starts to assign a higher
degree of uncertainty on the policy outcome," David Zhou, Multi Asset Investment
Manager at abrdn said. 
    "That said, Bank Indonesia has sufficient tools to intervene and dampen
volatility," he added.  
    The South Korean won rose about 0.2% while its shares
advanced more than 1.3%, after a jump in its factory activity for the first time
in 19 months in January, coupled with a upbeat exports data. 
    A slew of data on purchasing managers' indexes across Asia revealed that the
region's factories delivered a largely patchy performance in January, with PMIs
growing in South Korea and shrinking in Taiwan and the Philippines.     
    The Thai baht rose about 0.2%, likely driven by influences of
gold-related inflows into the market, according to Panichpibool. 
    Markets in Malaysia were closed on account of a public holiday.  

    HIGHLIGHTS:    
    ** Indonesia's 10-year benchmark yield 
    ** POLL-Indonesia's economy likely to have grown 5% in Q4
    ** Thai public debt-GDP ratio at 61.34% at end-Dec

    
    
  Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0400 GMT
 COUNTRY      FX RIC           FX   FX YTD      INDEX  STOCKS   STOCKS
                          DAILY %        %              DAILY    YTD %
                                                            %  
 Japan                      +0.12    -3.84              -0.89     7.47
 China                      -0.13    -1.12               0.20    -6.08
 India                      +0.09    +0.29               0.19     0.16
 Indonesia                  +0.06    -2.35               0.31    -0.58
 Malaysia                   +0.00    -2.90               0.02     4.01
 Philippines                +0.21    -1.39              -0.59     2.43
 S.Korea                    +0.25    -3.25               1.36    -4.68
 Singapore                  +0.04    -1.51              -0.23    -2.91
 Taiwan                     -0.20    -2.01              -0.05    -0.28
 Thailand                   +0.20    -3.71               0.55    -3.10
 
 (Reporting by Archishma Iyer in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)