EMERGING MARKETS-Asian stocks, equities cautious over Ukraine tensions, Nvidia results

By Sneha Kumar

Nov 20 (Reuters) - Caution prevailed among investors in Asian equity and currency markets on Wednesday ahead of an earnings report from AI-darling Nvdia NVDA.O with escalations in the Ukraine-Russia conflict further pushing traders to the sidelines.

Chipmaking stocks in South Korea and Taiwan .TWII were under pressure ahead of a third-quarter report from the world's most valuable company, Nvidia NVDA.O, which will determine the direction of the artificial intelligence frenzy that has gripped the markets lately.

South Korea's Kospi .KS11 advanced 0.6% on the back of a 1.2% rise in SK Hynix 000660.KS. Samsung Electronics's 005930.KS 1.4% decline limited bigger gains.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) 2330.TW, the world's biggest contract chipmaker, was down 0.5% in Taipei.

MSCI's gauge of Asian emerging market equities .MIMS00000PUS, in which TSMC and Samsung Electronics hold an aggregate 15.6% weightage, was largely unchanged. A gauge of Asian equities including Japan .MIAP00000PUS was down 0.5%.

Markets were rattled overnight by Ukraine's use of U.S. missiles to strike inside Russia, with Moscow lowering the threshold for a possible nuclear strike.

Junvum Kim, sales trader at UBS Wealth Management, said once the Nvidia results are released, it will become clearer how escalations in Russia's war in Ukraine are impacting the market.

Positive results from Nvidia will spur Wall Street, which could potentially slow down a strengthening U.S. dollar, if not reverse it, Kim said.

A slowdown in the greenback would help Asian equities and currencies, while a favourable outcome from the chipmaker would be a boon for its suppliers from South Korea and Taiwan.

Asian investors are also looking out for Bank Indonesia's monetary policy decision later on Wednesday where the central bank is expected to keep interest rates unchanged, according to a Reuters poll.

This move is expected to support the rupiah IDR= from further depreciation, considering it has lost 1% this month and nearly 3% over the year.

The rupiah fell 0.2% on the day, while Indonesian equities .JKSE slipped marginally. The Jakarta stock index has underperformed its peers, down more than 1% this year. In comparison, indexes in Malaysia .KLSE and Singapore .STI have gained roughly 10% and 16%, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Philippine central bank governor said a third rate cut could be expected at the December meeting as Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas was still in its easing cycle.

Manila stocks .PSI slipped 0.3% after gaining for three consecutive sessions and the peso PHP= was trading flat.

Elsewhere, Singapore stocks .STI eased after hitting a 17-year high on Tuesday.

Indian markets were closed for a public holiday.

HIGHLIGHTS:

** China leaves lending benchmark LPRs unchanged, as expected

** South Korea should normalise monetary policy, IMF says

** Indonesia raises $2.75 bln from multi-tranche global sukuk, largest in a year.

(Reporting by Sneha Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saad Sayeed.)

((Sneha.kumar@thomsonreuters.com))