SE Asia Stocks-Most climb as U.S., China temporarily drop tariff threats

* Singapore gains about 1 pct

* Indonesia falls for third session

* Asian shares ex-Japan climb

By Karthika Suresh Namboothiri

May 21 (Reuters) - Most Southeast Asian stock markets rose

on Monday, with Singapore gaining about 1 percent, after the

United States and China agreed to drop their tariff threats

while they work on a wider trade agreement.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan

rose 0.6 percent after U.S. Treasury Secretary

Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday the U.S. trade war with China was

"on hold".

"Given the possible worst-case scenario was avoided the

market should view the latest trade discussions as favourable

and equity market should be in that happy place, at least for

today," said Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia-Pacific at

Oanda.

Singapore gained as much as 1.1 percent, its biggest

intraday percentage gain in three weeks, with lenders DBS Group

Holdings and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp up

as much as 1.8 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.

The city-state is set to release its final gross domestic

product for the first quarter on Thursday, with expectations

that the economy will expand on the back of growth in the

manufacturing sector.

Thai shares gained for a third session, buoyed by

gains in financials and energy stocks.

Convenience store operator CP All PCL was up as

much as 1.8 percent, while PTT Exploration and Production

gained as much as 2.1 percent.

Thailand's economy grew nearly twice as fast as forecast

from the previous quarter in January-March, driven by robust

exports and tourism as well as improved private consumption and

crops, data showed.

Meanwhile, Indonesian shares slipped for a third

straight session, down as much as 1.1 percent, to their lowest

in nearly two weeks.

Bank Indonesia said it would conduct three foreign exchange

swap operations this week to ensure enough rupiah liquidity in

the market following its benchmark interest rate hike last week.

"As the U.S. continuously raises interest rates, it's

impacting a lot of the emerging markets, such as Indonesia.

Hence, the central bank has to raise interest rates to stamp out

the capital outflows," said Joel Ng, analyst at KGI Securities.

The rupiah hit its lowest in more than two-and-a-half

years in early trade.

Telekomunikasi Indonesia shed 2.3 percent, while

lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia was down as much as 6.5

percent.

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SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS AS AT 0355 GMT

STOCK MARKETS

Change on the day

Market Current Previous close Pct Move

Singapore 3559.88 3529.27 0.87

Bangkok 1761.81 1754.17 0.44

Manila 7697.87 7672.28 0.33

Jakarta 5748.025 5783.31 -0.61

Kuala Lumpur 1861.58 1854.5 0.38

Ho Chi Minh 1030.55 1040.54 -0.96

Change on year

Market Current End 2017 Pct Move

Singapore 3559.88 3402.92 4.61

Bangkok 1761.81 1753.71 0.46

Manila 7697.87 8558.42 -10.06

Jakarta 5748.025 6355.654 -9.56

Kuala Lumpur 1861.58 1796.81 3.60

Ho Chi Minh 1030.55 984.24 4.71

(Reporting by Karthika Suresh Namboothiri; additional reporting

by Binisha H. Ben; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)