feb 8 reuters  asian currencies were largely flat on tuesday as investors placed cautious bets ahead of the us inflation data while the thai baht held a narrow lead aided by talks on bilateral travel bubble deals with malaysia and china to boost its economy the baht firmed 02 and stocks seti rose 03 as the government worked to help the tourismreliant economy recover in the face of rising new covid19 cases with traders looking forward to a central bank policy meeting on wednesday read more poon panichpibool a market strategist with krung thai bank said the market players could feel more nervous ahead of the us cpi data on thursday and as the dollar index rose higher souring sentiments the chinese index slumped to a 19month low on tuesday as investors fretted over the prospect of the us government adding more chinese entities to the export control list read more moreover selloff in chinese stocks both ashares and hshares also hurt overall market sentiments which also contribute to weakness across asian currencies this afternoon panichpibool added however the us dollar and euro had eased overnight after european central bank president christine lagarde calmed market expectations of a quick hike in interest rates and as markets awaited this weeks inflation data read more growing bets of a 50 basispoint hike came after the us nonfarm jobs report and market participants will continue to seek validation from the upcoming key us cpi datato see if it is warranted in the march’s fed meeting a strategist with ig said the south korean won rose 03 leading gains after president moon jaein said the countrys economic policies should focus on stabilising consumer inflation and managing household debt as higher interest rates have made repayments more onerous read more meanwhile a reuters poll showed indonesias central bank was expected to raise rates faster as concerns mount about a weaker rupiah read more indonesias rupiah rose 01 while stocks jkse pared some losses to drop marginally by 01 singapores benchmark the straits times index sti was up 081 outperforming most of its peers the latest sgx fund flow data recorded the fifth consecutive week of net institutional inflows which marks the largest weekly inflow since march 2021  indonesian 10year benchmark yields are up 089 basis points at 65​​  korean stocks ks11 pared early gains up 01 as us sanctions against some china firms weigh reporting by savyata mishra and indranil sarkar in bengaluru