Emerging-market stocks rose for a second day on speculation that U.S. policy makers will take steps to stimulate the world’s largest economy.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index gained 0.1 percent to 1,010.29 at 12:30 p.m. in London, with 364 shares rising for 282 decliners. The ISE National 100 Index (XU100) jumped 1.2 percent in Istanbul as Citigroup Inc. said Turkish shares looked undervalued. South Korea’s Kospi Index (KOSPI) climbed 0.7 percent. The FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index jumped 0.8 percent in Johannesburg as mining companies gained.

U.S. President Barack Obama will address Congress today on a $300 billion plan that includes tax cuts, infrastructure spending and direct aid to state and local governments, while Federal Reserve Chairman Ben. S. Bernanke is scheduled to discuss the economic outlook. Central banks in the U.K., South Korea and Malaysia left benchmark interest rates unchanged.

Obama’s probably “going to come out with a very aggressive program of government spending on infrastructure, and this of course will help the unemployment situation temporarily,” Mark Mobius, who oversees about $50 billion at Templeton Asset Management, said today in an interview with Bloomberg UTV. “People will move more towards equities going forward, knowing that the big threat of inflation is with is.”

The European Central Bank will keep the main refinancing rate at 1.5 percent at a meeting today, according to 57 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Vietnamese Lenders

Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS (GARAN), Turkey’s largest listed bank, advanced 2.2 percent in Istanbul, leading gains after Citigroup analysts Andrew Howell and Maria Gratsova in London said the country’s stocks were “looking nearly as cheap as they ever have.”

The lira dropped 0.3 percent, after Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said the central bank is not “strictly committed” to ensuring a particular level for the currency. Babacan spoke in an interview with Bloomberg HT television in Ankara after markets closed yesterday.

Poland’s zloty depreciated 0.6 percent versus the euro and the Hungarian forint lost 0.3 percent after decline versus the euro after the German parliament’s HIB bulletin reported Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble saying that Greece’s financial situation is “on a knife’s edge.”

BHP Billiton Plc (BIL), the world’s biggest mining company, rose 1.2 percent in Johannesburg as gold jumped 0.4 percent in London.

China Rates Report

The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.7 percent. The Chinese government may boost interest rates this month or next, triggered by quickening inflation, the Securities Times reported today, citing an unidentified economist at China International Capital Corp., Asia’s biggest investment bank. The Securities Times is an affiliate of the official People’s Daily.

The BSE India Sensitive Index rose 0.6 percent in Mumbai. The gauge yesterday climbed to its highest level in four weeks. Indian stocks are “still somewhat overpriced” even after the Sensex’s 17 percent decline this year, according to Templeton’s Mobius.

Vietnam’s VN Index jumped 2.1 percent, its 10th day of gains, after the central bank pledged to punish lenders who violate an order to cut interest rates.

The extra yield investors demand to own emerging-market debt over U.S. Treasuries rose one basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, to 371, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)’s EMBI Global Index.

Bloomberg