OREANDA-NEWS. March 19, 2015. Emerging currencies traded mixed on Wednesday while stocks rose to an 8-day high, lifted by lower oil prices and a tepid dollar ahead of a hotly anticipated Federal Reserve meeting ending later in the day.

In China, the yuan posted its strongest daily gain in a year to hit a 2-month high against the dollar, which traders said was likely to reflect central bank intervention. Russia's rouble rose 0.5 percent as exporters sold hard currencies to settle tax bills, shrugging off oil falling towards \\$53 a barrel.

However, South Africa's rand, Turkey's lira and the Brazilian real all eased against the greenback ahead of the Fed's policy statement, widely anticipated to lay the ground for the first U.S. interest rate hike in nearly a decade later in the year.

"The immediate focus is on the Federal Open Market Committee tonight," said UBS strategist Manik Narain.

"I don't think we will get too much relief on emerging markets and the risk is the market realises the Fed is determined to move at a faster trajectory than the market is pricing in," he added.

Emerging market stocks rose 0.6 percent to an 8-day high, gaining ground for the third straight session, lifted by China's benchmark indexes jumping more than 2 percent to a near 7-year high on hopes that Beijing will unveil fresh economic stimulus.

In Moscow, both dollar and rouble-denominated shares gained ground while in Israel shares rose 0.6 percent after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won a surprise election victory, though the shekel traded flat.

Across the Middle East, stocks were trading well in the red with Dubai down as much as 4.5 percent, dragged down by sliding oil prices.

In eastern Europe, currencies traded flat to lower against the euro as Bulgaria and Slovenia gear up to issue euro denominated bonds.

"For finance ministries this is possibly a case of 'goldilocks' timing; right after the start of ECB QE and before potential pressure from rising U.S. yields and a rebound in inflation," Unicredit analysts told clients of the heavy demand for recent euro debt issues from Croatia and Bulgaria.

Romania is also expected to tap markets in the coming days.

In Ukraine, dollar bond prices recovered across the curve by as much as 1.255 cents following a drubbing on Tuesday when talks about restructuring Kiev's debt ran into difficulties straight from the beginning.

Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko pledged late on Tuesday in Washington that the country wants to be flexible over renegotiating its debt and would not rule out any form of agreement.