* Central bank meetings and corporate earnings in focus
* Inflows seen in emerging market equity and bond funds-EPFR
* Euro stays near 9-week high on hawkish ECB, cautious Fed
By Saikat Chatterjee
HONG KONG, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Asian stocks rose on mild
bargain buying after a sell-off last week, while the euro
hovered near a nine-week high before a Fed meeting this week
where it is expected to paint a cautious view of the world's
biggest economy.
Central bank meetings in Japan, Malaysia and India this week
will be a key factor as policymakers, especially in Mumbai, are
seen raising interest rates further to tackle price pressures.
Concerns of rising inflation gave investors an excuse to
book profits in some Asian markets after record rallies in 2010,
but rather than heading for the exits, funds were being
reallocated to countries seen having a better grip on price
pressures.
The MSCI stocks index of Asian stocks outside of Japan
rose by 0.2 percent after posting its worst
weekly performance in nearly two months last week.
For the month it is down by a percent.
Sentiment was wary before a slew of corporate earnings this
week and a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday where it is
likely to leave policy unchanged and note a slight improvement
in the economy's outlook. .
"On top of domestic earnings, investors may not want to take
large positions before big U.S. events such as the FOMC
meeting," said Kenji Shiomura, a market analyst at Daiwa
Securities.
Flows into emerging market equity and bond funds continued,
latest data for the third week of January from fund tracker EPFR
Global showed.
Since the start of 2010 a total of $101 billion has flowed
into emerging market equity funds of all types, it said.
The euro stayed above the $1.36 line, having burst
through the key resistance level last Friday, helped by hawkish
comments from the European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude
Trichet which gave markets an excuse to cut short euro
positions.
The euro has rallied some 6 percent in the past two weeks as
demand from Asian central banks spurred wider buying in the
common currency. .
Spot gold edged up by 0.4 percent to $1,347 per
ounce, after posting its third consecutive weekly loss.
.
U.S. crude futures stayed around the $89 a barrel
mark, on expectations that their discount to European Brent
crude could be narrowed by arbitrage trading after widening to
its broadest level in almost two years.
(Additional reporting by IFR Markets and Ayai Tomisawa in
TOKYO; Editing by Alex Richardson)
* For Reuters Global Investing Blog, click on
http://blogs.reuters.com/globalinvesting
* For the MacroScope Blog, click on
http://blogs.reuters.com/macroscope
* For Hedge Fund Blog, click on
http://blogs.reuters.com/hedgehub
