EMERGING MARKETS-Philippine central bank sends stocks soaring with surprise rate cut

* Graphic: Asia current accounts https://tmsnrt.rs/3kNEAn5 * Thai measures to contain the baht's rise seen to be not aggressive enough * Indonesia, Philippine central banks cut rates on Thursday By Nikhil Nainan Nov 20 (Reuters) - Philippine shares led emerging Asian markets on Friday, surging 2.5% after the country's central bank delivered a surprise cut in interest rates to shore up a domestic economy struggling after months of on-off coronavirus restrictions. The region's foreign exchange markets were largely higher, with new steps from the Bank of Thailand to stem gains for the baht seeing little success. The currency rose almost half a percent in morning trade. Equity markets across Asia were up across the board, with Singapore gaining over 1%, as an improved global mood and the region's relative success in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic encourages investment. Most of the region's emerging stock markets were set to post weekly gains of around 2%. The Philippine central bank fuelled gains in Manila by cutting another 25 basis points off its main interest rates on Thursday, bringing them to a new low of 2.0%. "Loose monetary policy could be good for stock valuations and could drive a further rally for local bond yields," said Jennifer Lomboy, a fixed income fund manager at First Metro Asset in Manila. The Philippine stock index hit its highest since late-February, while the peso edged 0.2% higher. Analysts and investors were unimpressed with the Thai central bank's announcement of easier rules for investing in foreign currencies and securities, its latest move to try and halt the baht's rise. The bank, which held off on an outright cut in interest rates on Wednesday, has warned again of the damage the baht's strength can do the economy after a more than 3% jump in the currency this month. "The measures seem to be more of the same old, same old, which is to encourage outflows," Kobsidthi Silpachai, the head of capital markets research at Kasikornbank said, arguing that the heart of the problem is high taxation. "Since excise taxes on imported goods are high, it suppresses imports, which makes the current account surplus even higher, which leads to a strong baht," he said. "We have seen many years of monetary measures... we need to try fiscal measures like tax reforms." Bank Indonesia also surprised by cutting rates this week, by 25 basis points to 3.75%, dimming the appeal of its high-yielding local bond market. The central bank governor said the rupiah, which dipped 0.2% on Friday, was still undervalued. The currency has been one of the outperformers among the region's emerging markets, climbing over 3% this month. "We expect a possible rate cut in the near-term for as long as the rupiah remains on its current appreciation bias," said Nicholas Mapa, a senior economist at ING. HIGHLIGHTS: ** Indonesian 10-year benchmark yields up 1.9 basis points at 6.197% ** Top index gainers in the Philippines are San Miguel Corp , GT Capital Holdings Inc and BDO Unibank Inc Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0715 GMT COUNTRY FX RIC FX FX INDEX STOCKS STOCKS DAILY % YTD % DAILY % YTD % Japan -0.06 +4.65 -0.42 7.91 China +0.16 +5.94 0.44 10.75 India +0.16 -3.73 0.08 5.04 Indonesia -0.21 -2.05 -0.36 -11.52 Malaysia +0.27 +0.05 0.72 0.40 Philippines +0.15 +4.97 2.46 -8.26 S.Korea +0.12 +3.78 0.24 16.19 Singapore +0.09 +0.08 1.03 -12.95 Taiwan +1.06 +5.58 -0.04 14.33 Thailand +0.36 -1.25 0.64 -12.76 (Reporting by Nikhil Kurian Nainan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sam Holmes and Uttaresh.V)