EMERGING MARKETS-Asia stocks post modest gains on upbeat earnings; currencies rise

* Indonesia market closed for a holiday * Singapore stocks hit highest level in three weeks * All Asian currencies climb over 0.2% By Tejaswi Marthi April 29 (Reuters) - Most Asian stocks logged small gains on Friday, taking positive cues from an upbeat Wall Street session overnight with strong earnings reports lifting sentiment, while investors placed cautious bets ahead of the U.S. Fed's policy meeting next week. Equities in Singapore advanced 0.9% to touch their highest level since April 8 after earnings from the top lenders DBS Group Holdings and OCBC beat analyst estimates. Stocks in Seoul also jumped 1% to a week high, helped by strong first-quarter earnings at Samsung Electronics and other major domestic companies. Bucking the trend, the Philippine benchmark declined as much as 1.1% and was on track to end April more than 5% lower, for its worst month since July. Friday's gains were marginal compared to a brutal sell-off in stocks in recent weeks that forced benchmark stock indexes in most regions to track monthly losses, amid expectations that the U.S. central bank will increase its target policy rate by half a percentage point in the coming week. "Market dynamics this week reflected that recession fears are growing," analysts at Barclays said in a note. "While recession concerns are still a potential risk, higher inflation is a fact, and policy response at the moment is aimed to tackle inflation." However, given doubts over economic growth in China after extensive lockdowns, as well as headwinds from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, global central banks face tough decisions on tapering monetary stimulus. "Fears of too much monetary tightening triggering the next recession have markets observing higher volatility levels as we move closer to next week's U.S. Federal Reserve meeting," Barclays analysts added. Most Asian currencies were steady on Friday, with the South Korean won firming about 1% against the strong dollar. The Malaysian ringgit, Singapore dollar and Philippine peso all firmed 0.3% each. Markets in Indonesia were closed due to a public holiday. HIGHLIGHTS: ** Indonesian 10-year benchmark yields fall 32 basis points to 6.963% ** China's factory activity likely contracts at a faster pace in April - Reuters poll ** DBS shares rose 3% while OCBC jumped 3.5% Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0503 GMT COUNTRY FX RIC FX FX INDE STOCKS STOCKS DAILY % YTD % X DAILY YTD % % Japan +0.25 -11.8 <.N2 +1.75 -6.76 3 25> China EC> India -0.07 -2.88 <.NS 0.18 -0.45 EI> Indonesi +0.00 -1.69 <.JK 0.45 9.84 a SE> Malaysia +0.11 -4.39 <.KL 0.17 2.08 SE> Philippi -0.04 -2.67 <.PS -1.44 -4.39 nes I> S.Korea 11> Singapor +0.26 -2.47 <.ST 0.81 .sti e I> Taiwan +0.07 -6.15 <.TW 0.92 -9.05 II> Thailand +0.19 -2.81 <.SE 0.14 0.75 TI> (Reporting by Tejaswi Marthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Klamann)