Stocks advance as investors stay calm against tariff rhetoric

Stock markets in emerging Asian economies pressed forward on Thursday, led by South Korea, as investors took in stride US President Donald Trump’s latest tariff salvos, betting the most damaging scenarios were unlikely to materialize.

An MSCI gauge of emerging Asian equities inched higher, supported by stocks in South Korea, which jumped 1.6% to a near four-year high, and Taiwan stocks, which advanced 0.8%.

A subset of ASEAN equities jumped to a two-week high. Singapore stocks, which account for nearly half of the index, hit a new high for the seventh consecutive session, driven by strong inflows into industrials, telecom, and banks.

Investors dismissed Trump’s latest tariff threats as rhetoric, expecting them to be a tactic to extract more concessions from trade partners, said analysts.

“Since Trump took office, he has created a lot of noise in the market. But compare that noise today with three months ago; it is no longer creating that kind of volatility,” said Ernest Chew, head of ASEAN equities at BNP Paribas Asset Management.

“Investing in ASEAN will remain focused on a very bottom-up approach. If we see opportunities, we will continue to put the trickles on. If there is a sector or a company that we think is very attractive, we will start to do some bottom-fishing.”

Market participants will keenly scrutinize headlines from the trade negotiations between emerging economies and the United States. Eyes are on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s first visit to Asia during an ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

Most EM Asia currencies rebounded as the dollar slipped from a two-week high scaled in the previous session. Analysts believe that while Trump’s tariff letters exerted pressure on currencies, the reaction was much less dramatic than in April.

In the lead were the Philippine peso PHP= and Thailand’s baht, firming 0.4% each against the US dollar.

Malaysia’s ringgit erased early gains to trade largely flat. The country’s central bank slashed its key interest rate for the first time in five years on Wednesday, citing trade-related risks to growth.

A fortnightly survey by Reuters showed traders trimmed their long positions in most Asian currencies as Trump’s threats to ramp up tariffs dampened appetite for risk assets, although such bets on the Taiwan and Singapore dollars shot up.

Among stock markets, Indonesia jumped to a three-week high in its fourth straight session of gains. Malaysia turned flat in the afternoon session, while the Philippines slipped further to finish 0.6% in red.

HIGHLIGHTS:

** Indonesia’s 10-year benchmark yield at 6.585%

** A FTSE ASEAN index dominated by banks up 0.6%, few points short of six-week high

** Indonesia, US eye wider critical minerals partnership after ‘positive’ meeting

** Thai stock market closed for holiday

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Subhranshu Sahu)