Updates for afternoon trade

By Rajasik Mukherjee

June 26 (Reuters) - Asian stocks slipped on Friday to their lowest point in two weeks, as Apple's price hikes soured tech sentiment, triggering a selloff in South Korea and Taiwan and raising fresh doubts about the durability of the AI-driven rally.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Asia gauge .MIMS00000PUS fell nearly 4%, hitting its lowest point since June 12. For the week, the index has lost more than 5% so far, on track for its worst since the first week of the Middle East conflict.

South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 closed nearly 6% lower on Friday, and logged a 7.1% weekly loss, its biggest weekly fall since early March.

Apple raised iPad and MacBook prices on Thursday, citing surging memory and storage chip costs from the AI-driven datacenter boom, a move that unsettled tech-heavy markets in South Korea and Taiwan, which rely on stable component prices.

"Apple's sudden price hike has become a reality check for AI trades," said Glenn ​Yin, director of research at brokerage ACCM.

"Investors are beginning to ask who is ultimately bearing the cost, rather than just celebrating growing semiconductor demand, and if a significant part of that cost is being passed onto consumers, then demand elasticity could become the next constraint on AI-related earnings growth."

Taiwan shares .TWII fell as much as 3.9% to their lowest level since June 15, putting the market on track for its worst weekly performance since early March.

Across Southeast Asia, Singapore stocks .STI fell 0.6%, while those in the Philippines .PSI traded 0.4% lower.

Stocks in Jakarta .JKSE shed nearly 3%, tracking their sixth decline in eight sessions.

The index has lost 5.5% so far this week, set to snap a two-week gaining streak.

Regional currencies also weakened on Friday, pressured by expectations that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates elevated and by a broadly stable U.S. dollar.

The dollar inched lower but remained on track for its first back-to-back weekly gain since the start of the Middle East conflict on February 28.

The Thai baht THB=TH dipped as much as 0.5%, hitting its lowest level since May, and was on track for a seventh decline in eight sessions.

Diverging monetary policy paths have kept the baht under pressure, as the Bank of Thailand's steady stance differs from the expectations of higher U.S. rates, widening yield differentials in favour of the dollar.

"The widening interest rate differential is a key catalyst, and the Baht's continuous decline in recent days also happen to echo the timing of FOMC's release of rate projections," Yin added.

"FX markets are highly sensitive to relative returns, and as long as investors can earn higher risk-adjusted yields in U.S. dollar assets while the BoT remains on hold, capital is likely to continue favouring the dollar over the baht."

The Indonesian rupiah IDR= traded 0.2% lower, still hovering around the key 18,000 mark against the dollar.

Bucking the broader weakness, the Malaysian ringgit MYR= and the South Korean won KRW=KFTC gained 0.4% each.

HIGHLIGHTS:

** Indonesia to inject more liquidity into state banks, finmin says

** China's central bank urges banks to boost lending as demand remains weak, sources say

** UN halts escort of ships through Hormuz after vessel comes under attack

Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0713 GMT
COUNTRY	FX RIC	FX DAILY %	FX YTD %	INDEX	STOCKS DAILY %	STOCKS YTD %
Japan	JPY=	+0.08	-3.09	.N225	-4.15	37.79
China	CNY=CFXS	-0.05	+2.73	.SSEC	-2.23	1.50
India	INR=IN	-	-4.79	.NSEI	-	-7.94
Indonesia	IDR=	-0.06	-7.00	.JKSE	-2.46	-32.33
Malaysia	MYR=	+0.56	-0.88	.KLSE	0.00	-0.97
Philippines	PHP=	-0.02	-4.04	.PSI	0.02	0.32
S.Korea	KRW=KFTC	+0.37	-6.37	.KS11	-5.81	99.59
Singapore	SGD=	+0.01	-0.75	.STI	-0.53	11.73
Taiwan	TWD=TP	-0.25	-1.49	.TWII	-3.64	53.89
Thailand	THB=TH	-0.15	-5.75	.SETI	-0.85	22.68