EMERGING MARKETS-Thai baht muted after cenbank holds rates; Asian FX boosted by Fed's comments

(.) * Taiwan dollar, Malaysian ringgit lead gains * Thai baht, stocks flat after c.bank holds rates * Dollar index hits multi-month lows By Archishma Iyer Nov 29 (Reuters) - Thailand's baht and equities traded flat after its central bank stood pat on interest rates on Wednesday, while most emerging Asian currencies rose after dovish comments from a Federal Reserve official pushed the dollar to a more than three-month low. The baht was trading at 34.730 to the dollar, as of 0730 GMT after the central bank kept rates unchanged, as expected, at 2.50%, a decade-high. It, however, lowered the country's 2023 growth outlook to 3.2% from an earlier estimate of 4.4%. "In my base case scenario, the Bank of Thailand could cut policy rate to 2% in 2025 as economic growth could run out of fiscal boosts in 2024 and inflation could be a bit lower than 2% by that time," said Poon Panichpibool, a markets strategist at Krungthai Bank. Separately, South Korea's central bank is expected to hold its key policy rate on Thursday. The currency gained about 0.3% on Wednesday. Fed Governor Christopher Waller, a prominent hawkish voice, overnight said that interest rate cuts in the United States could begin in a matter of months, provided inflation keeps falling, sparking a flurry of exits from the greenback and into riskier assets. The Taiwan dollar appreciated the most among emerging Asian currencies, rising as much as 0.8% to hit its highest since late July, while the Malaysian ringgit strengthened 0.6% The Singapore dollar also firmed as much as 0.2% to reach a four-month high, before paring some gains to trade flat, while the Philippines peso reached its strongest level since early August. The dollar index, which measures the strength of the U.S. currency against six major rivals, stood at 102.72, as of 0730 GMT. "Attention will now move to Chair Powell's speech on Friday to see if the tone points to a clear pivot towards easing," Daragh Maher, head of research, Americas, and head of FX strategy, U.S., at HSBC, said in a note. Fed Chair Powell is expected to speak at Spelman College, Atlanta, on Friday, where markets will look for further clues on the outlook for U.S. rates. "If it materializes, this would clearly be a challenge to our bullish USD view." Among Asian equities, stocks in Singapore, India, and Taiwan rose between 0.1% and 0.7%. Markets in South Korea and Philippines fell 0.1% and 0.7% respectively. HIGHLIGHTS: ** Indonesia's benchmark 10-year bond yield falls to 6.661% ** Sri Lanka reaches debt restructuring deal with creditor nations ** Vietnam to extend VAT cut until mid-2024 to support economy Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0730 GMT Japan +0.18 -10.94 -0.26 27.69 China +0.19 -3.14 -0.56 -2.19 India +0.03 -0.71 0.75 10.68 Indonesia +0.25 +1.13 -0.09 2.68 Malaysia +0.52 -5.29 -0.03 -3.20 Philippines +0.07 +0.51 -0.70 -4.59 S.Korea +0.32 -1.95 -0.08 12.67 Singapore +0.02 +0.68 0.62 -5.12 Taiwan +0.74 -1.70 0.17 22.87 Thailand -0.01 -0.39 -0.14 -16.14 (Reporting by Archishma Iyer in Bengaluru; editing by Robert Birsel and Sonia Cheema)