EMERGING MARKETS-FX at one-month high led by Indian rupee, Korean won; earnings, IMF in focus 

By Johann M Cherian and Sudeshna Ghoshal

Oct 12 (Reuters) - MSCI's emerging market currencies index hit a one-month high on Monday, with big moves seen in the Indian rupee and the Korean won, as investors weighed a US energy ceasefire announcement between Russia and Ukraine, while equities lagged ahead of the earnings season.

Brent crude and developed market bond yields, two key drivers of global markets in recent weeks, eased but were still at elevated levels. At the closely watched International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Bangkok, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva urged member states to act swiftly on curbing inflation and large deficits.

The FX benchmark .MIEM00000CUS inched up 0.3%, with oil net-importer Korea's won up 0.6% and at its highest since early October 2024.

Elsewhere in Asia, India's central bank unveiled a series of measures aimed at reducing spot and forward dollar demand, in an effort to ease the selling pressure on the rupee. The rupee jumped 1% to 95 per dollar, but analysts said the currency's depreciation could resume amid underlying macro pressures.

EARNINGS SEASON, IMF MEETINGS IN SPOTLIGHT

As October progresses, the focus will squarely be on the quarterly reporting season from corporates across emerging markets, with the outlook for the AI trade in Asia and the US under scrutiny.

A group of investors are warning of AI concentration risk in emerging markets, dominated by Korean and Taiwanese companies.

"A lot of investors are very concerned and very worried by the fact that everyone owns the exact same trade. The benchmark is very concentrated, but when they move from passive to active, what they find is that the active manager also owns the exact same thing," Juan Torres, co-manager of the Neuberger Emerging Markets Equity fund, said.

In the process, sectors in South Africa, Indonesia and China are among those that have gone out of favor, opening up opportunities as fundamentals have barely changed, said Vanessa Stevenson, a senior equities analyst at Neuberger.

Still, strong AI investment is keeping global growth at around 3%, the IMF's Georgieva said, with Asian economies among key beneficiaries. MSCI's equities index .MSCIEF lost 0.6% on Monday, weighed by Asian stocks.

Over the weekend, US President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement of an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine and a US diesel-supply deal with Moscow, in an effort to curb a sharp rise in diesel prices. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was still waiting to see details of the deal and there was no word from Moscow on the ceasefire.

Kyiv's international bonds , dipped about 0.6 cents on the dollar, while Russia's rouble firmed 1.3%.

The weekend also saw Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia's Riyadh international airport. However, losses in Gulf equities .TASI, .MSX30, .FTFADGI were largely contained.

In Turkey, equities .XU100 slipped 0.7%. A report late last week said the country was drafting laws to make fund managers liable for liquidations that sparked a selloff last month.

Poland's zloty dipped 0.2%. Central banker Henryk Wnorowski said he is "certainly considering" an interest rate hike in November, a PAP news agency report said.