OREANDA-NEWS. March 25, 2015. Emerging market stocks were at three-week highs on Tuesday as the rally stemming from the U.S. Federal Reserve dampening forecasts of imminent rate rises continued, though weak data from China checked the advance.

The MSCI emerging equities index was up 0.4 percent at a level last seen at the beginning of the month while the Asia Pacific excluding Japan benchmark also advanced 0.4 percent.

When the Fed signaled on March 18 it was still in no rush to raise interest rates, investors started to flock back to emerging market assets having earlier been lured away by the promise of better returns from dollar assets.

Asian currencies were stronger against the dollar, with the Korean Won up 0.4 percent, the Indonesian rupiah rising 0.9 percent and the Malaysian ringgit up 1.2 percent.

"This relief rally might have seven weeks to two months to go. It seems to have more legs than any of the shorter rallies we've seen recently," said Per Hammarlund, emerging markets strategist at SEB.

However, the resurgence of optimism surrounding emerging markets was tempered by some unexpectedly weak Chinese manufacturing data. Shanghai stocks initially fell 2 percent before recovering to close up 0.1 percent.

Russian assets joined the rally, helped by a firmer oil market. The rouble gained 0.3 percent against the dollar while Moscow shares were up 1.5 percent on the dollar-denominated RTS index.

Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko was visiting London to gather support for Kiev's IMF-backed economic turnaround plan, but the spread on the country's sovereign dollar debt versus U.S. Treasuries widened 26 basis points to 4,070 bps.

The cost of insuring exposure to Ukrainian debt rose 62 basis points to 4,557, according to financial data provider Markit.

Speaking in London, Yaresko said Kiev expects to start discussions with a creditor committee by next week. Ukraine is seeking around \\$15 billion of debt relief from its bondholders, including investment managers Franklin Templeton, PIMCO and Blackrock.

Hungary's forint was weaker against the euro ahead of an expected interest rate cut due later in the day.

Turkey's lira was down 0.3 pct vs dollar as worries resurfaced over political instability and government meddling in the central bank.