* Graphic: World FX rates tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
* Graphic: Foreign flows into Asian stocks tmsnrt.rs/3f2vwbA
* Indian rupee hits highest since March 3
* Indonesia's rupiah falls after three days of gains
Sept 1 (Reuters) - Philippine stocks sank to their lowest level in almost a month on
Tuesday, lagging broader Asian markets, as rising coronavirus cases hit manufacturing activity
and pushed the country to extend curbs in and around the capital Manila.
Partial restrictions will be in place for another month starting Tuesday, President Rodrigo
Duterte said on Monday, adding to pressure on business activity as data showed August
manufacturing PMI had dropped to its lowest in three months.
Manila's benchmark index slid 1.4%, while the peso was flat.
"I suspect the PMI data has something to do with the PSEi's performance today," said Ruben
Carlo O. Asuncion, chief economist at Union Bank of the Philippines, saying the trough in
manufacturing was due to the strict quarantine measures in place at the start of August.
In contrast, the Indian rupee rose to a near six-month high and the stock market
advanced 0.6% after the country's central bank laid out measures to stabilize the
financial system after a record economic contraction in the June quarter.
The Reserve Bank of India's measures include two more tranches of special open market
operations (OMOs) and easing of held-to-maturity (HTM) limits for bond holdings by banks.
"The biggest announcement which reduced the market's apprehension about absorption of supply
was increase in limit for banks for holding bonds in HTM category," said Abhishek Goenka,
founder and CEO of Mumbai-based trading firm IFA Global.
"This would increase the appetite for bonds of banks, nationalized banks in particular."
South Korean shares rallied 1% after Asia's fourth-biggest economy unveiled plans to
ramp up spending in the next few years to combat pandemic-induced economic weakness.
Currencies across the region broadly benefited from robust Chinese factory activity data and
weakness in the U.S. dollar, although Indonesia's rupiah was an outlier with a 0.2% dip.
Lower inflation puts more pressure on Indonesia's central bank to cut interest rates
further, potentially reducing the return of one of foreign investors' favourite Asia currency
carry trades and weakening the attraction of the rupiah.
HIGHLIGHTS
** Singapore's 10-year benchmark yield is down 3.7 basis points at 0.982%
** In the Philippines, top index losers are JG Summit Holdings down 4.43%, Puregold
Price Club down 3.89% and International Container Terminal Services down
3.24%
** Top gainers on the Jakarta stock index include Dewata Freight International Tbk
up 26.14%, Asuransi Bintang Tbk up 21.85% and Link Net Tbk up
16.16%
Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0717 GMT
COUNTRY FX RIC FX DAILY % FX YTD % INDEX STOCKS DAILY % STOCKS YTD %
Japan +0.20 +2.77 -0.01 -2.19
China +0.34 +2.02 0.44 11.82
India +1.03 -2.03 0.64 -5.82
Indonesia -0.10 -4.77 0.33 -16.57
Malaysia +0.47 -1.32 -0.01 -4.01
Philippines +0.03 +4.51 -1.44 -25.80
S.Korea +0.41 -2.25 1.01 6.91
Singapore +0.23 -0.93 -0.04 -21.45
Taiwan +0.63 +2.61 0.89 5.89
Thailand +0.36 -3.39 0.09 -16.96
(Reporting by Shashwat Awasthi and Shriya Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Patrick Graham
and Amy Caren Daniel)
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