The U.S. S&P 500 index ended at record high overnight All Asian equities gain, China trades flat Indonesian rupiah sees worst trading day in over a week Dec 28(Reuters) - Emerging Asia"s stocks and currencies gained on Tuesday as year-end sentiment got a boost from Wall Street"s record highs overnight, eclipsing underlying worries over the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. India (.NSEI), Taiwan (.TWII) and Indonesia (.JKSE) shares were among the biggest gainers, up between 0.5% and 0.8%, while most Asian currencies strengthened up to 0.2%. Trading was characterised by holiday-thinned volumes in the last week of 2021 ahead of the New Year. Investors appeared to be guardedly optimistic that the global recovery would regain steam next year, even though the emergence of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant has prompted border closures and mobility restrictions in most countries once again. "A rally in most of Asia"s EM currencies could be attributed to the risk-friendly sentiment," said Gao Qi, FX strategist at Scotiabank. "Global stock prices advanced overnight as the Omicron variant"s impact was considered less severe." Several reports have indicated that the Omicron variant caused milder symptoms and carried a lower risk of hospitalisation than the Delta strain of the coronavirus. However, China"s pandemic situation worsened, with cases rising at its northwestern province of Shaanxi, where the capital Xian is in lockdown. read more Stocks there (.SSEC) and the yuan were both flat. Barclays analysts wrote in a note that they "see potential for short-term appreciation in the yuan, but the bar for gains to be sustained is high" as the Chinese central bank steps up verbal intervention and foreign exchange liquidity management. The Indonesian rupiah weakened 0.1% to 14,237 per dollar in its worst trading day in more than a week. The country also reported its first locally transmitted Omicron case. read more Scotiabank"s Gao attributed the rupiah"s fall to a technical correction after it was overbought following an around 1% gain in the past two weeks. The peso eased 0.2%, taking its losses to 0.7% since a powerful typhoon slammed into the Philippines on Dec. 16, displacing more than 400,000 people, damaging homes and toppling power and communication lines. read more Elsewhere, consumer stocks dominated gains on the Singapore (.STI) and Philippine (.PSI) benchmark indexes, while higher oil prices boosted energy stocks on the Thai bourse (.SETI), up 0.6%. HIGHLIGHTS ** In Malaysia, stocks (.KLSE) were steady after data showed exports for November surged 32% as shipments to the United States continued to grow. ** Indonesian 3-year benchmark yields are down 7.1 basis points at 4.436% ** In the Philippines, among top index gainers are Bloomberry Resorts Corp (BLOOM.PS) up 2.2%, and Puregold Price Club Inc (PGOLD.PS), up ​2% Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0623 GMT COUNTRY FX RIC FX DAILY % FX YTD % INDEX STOCKS DAILY % STOCKS YTD % Japan -0.03 -10.12 (.N225) 1.37 5.92 China +0.05 +2.49 (.SSEC) 0.05 4.17 India +0.23 -2.35 (.NSEI) 0.80 23.18 Indonesia -0.09 -1.39 (.JKSE) 0.47 10.49 Malaysia +0.00 -3.85 (.KLSE) 0.34 -5.41 Philippines -0.12 -4.55 (.PSI) 0.31 1.93 S.Korea -0.06 -8.53 (.KS11) 0.54 4.95 Singapore +0.15 -2.50 (.STI) 0.66 9.87 Taiwan +0.20 +2.98 (.TWII) 0.82 23.51 Thailand +0.18