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RPT-EMERGING MARKETS-S. Korea won, stocks rally on vaccine cheer; Singapore budget awaited

(Repeats to additional subscribers; no change to text) * Graphic: World FX rates https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E * Singapore budget awaited at 0700 GMT * S. Korea govt gets vaccine for 23 mln people * Indonesia rupiah hits 6-wk high * China, Taiwan markets closed for holiday By Anushka Trivedi Feb 16 (Reuters) - The Singapore dollar edged up on Tuesdayahead of the city-state's 2021 budget, while South Korea's wonand stocks extended their rally on plans to vaccinate the entirecountry's population. The greenback eased as risk appetite firmed on globalvaccination progress, lifting the Malaysian ringgit,Indonesian rupiah and the Thai baht between 0.1%to 0.2%. Singapore's dollar and stocks both firmedaround 0.2% as investors awaited details of the budget which isexpected to be expansionary, but trimmed down compared to lastyear, to support still struggling sectors such as tourism. "Given the fading pandemic economic impact and generallyimproving economy, the government is likely to calibrate itsbudget support to be more targeted at sectors and individualsaffected by the COVID-19 situation," Standard Chartered analystssaid in a note. "Markets may be watching if the government announcesfurther details on borrowing to fund long-term expenditure." The city-state took on record budget deficit in 2020 todeliver a massive fiscal stimulus to aid the economy, which onMonday reported a smaller-than-expected contraction in thefourth-quarter. DBS expects officials to trim the 2021 budget deficit toS$10-S$12 billion from the S$74.2 billion ($56.10 billion)figure last year. Meanwhile, the rupiah firmed for second day to hit asix-week high after Indonesia reported a bigger-than-forecasttrade surplus for January on Monday, a trend analysts expectwill continue and support the currency in the medium-term. This should pave the way for Bank Indonesia to cut rate by25 basis points on its meeting on Thursday, OCBC analysts saidin a note. South Korea's won rallied for fifth day to hit anover one-month high, while the benchmark stock index KOSPI jumped as much as 1% in its third session of gains. Seoul markets cheered the government's arrangement withNovavax and Pfizer to get vaccines for 23million more people, which would be enough to cover the countryof about 53 million people. In line with global markets, positive vaccine developmentskept all Asian equities in the black, while financials poweredIndia's benchmark to a record high. China and Taiwan's financial markets were closed for aholiday. HIGHLIGHTS ** Indonesian 10-year benchmark yields are up almost 5 basispoints at 6.291% ** Top gainers on the Singapore STI include WilmarInternational Ltd up 1.1% and Mapletree CommercialTrust up 1% ** In the Philippines, top index gainers are Aboitiz EquityVentures Inc up 4.02% and SM Prime Holdings Inc up 3.4% Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0427 GMT COUNTRY FX RIC FX DAILY % FX YTD % INDEX STOCKS DAILY % STOCKS YTD % Japan -0.25 -2.25 1.75 11.53 India +0.00 +0.52 0.71 10.31 Indonesia +0.04 +0.97 0.28 5.17 Malaysia +0.05 -0.25 0.26 -0.92 Philippines -0.15 -0.00 0.61 -1.93 S.Korea +0.25 -1.14 0.17 9.70 Singapore +0.03 -0.11 0.27 3.36 Thailand +0.07 +0.33 0.20 5.27 ($1 = 1.3226 Singapore dollars) (Reporting by Anushka Trivedi in Bengaluru; Editing by LincolnFeast.)