LONDON: Singapore equities hit a more-than-six-year-high on Thursday, buoyed by rising foreign buying and economists upgrading the city-state's annual growth estimates, while stocks in Thailand jumped ahead of its new leader's policy proposal.
On the other hand, currency traders in emerging Asia mostly expressed caution after U.S. inflation data dampened bets of a bigger 50-basis-point Federal Reserve interest rate cut next week.
The Indonesian rupiah, Philippine peso and Malaysian ringgit slipped around 0.1 per cent each.
Singapore stocks surged 0.4 per cent to hit their highest since May, 2018, while shares in Bangkok added as much as 1 per cent.
Singapore's stock market has booked S$763 million (US$585.3 million) of net institutional inflows over the last nine sessions, exchange data showed, reversing more than half of the S$1.3 billion net outflow in the year to Aug. 29.
"Financial services have led the recent surge in net institutional inflow, followed by telecommunications, S-REITs, utilities and industrials," said Singapore Exchange (SGX) market strategist Geoff Howie.
Singapore, in August, narrowed its expectations of economic expansion this year, reflecting a resilient outlook for external demand, the same reason which economists cited for raising their growth expectations, on Wednesday.
The Singapore dollar was trading more or less unchanged on Thursday.
The city-state's central bank, which uses the exchange rate as its main monetary policy tool, maintained an appreciating bias for the currency at its July meeting.
In Thailand, stocks rallied on rising political stability and markets betting that new prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has a blueprint to deal with issues like an aging population and high household debts. Shinawatra is set to deliver her government's policy proposal to parliament on Thursday.
"Focus is that Thailand's political situation has been ... stable right when we compare to July and August," said Poon Panichpibool, markets strategist at Krung Thai Bank.
"Right now everything seems to be back to normal and the new government is starting to implement their plan."
Taiwan stocks rallied nearly 3 per cent, while those in South Korea and Philippines added 1.8 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively.