EMERGING MARKETS-EM stocks, currencies supported by depressed dollar

* Turkey's lira firms after weakening to 8 per dollar

* Poland, Hungary leaders to discuss EU budget row

* EM stocks jump, led by Asian markets

By Sruthi Shankar

Nov 26 (Reuters) - Emerging market stocks resumed gains on Thursday, while currencies firmed as the dollar lost more ground in the wake of downbeat U.S. economic data.

The Turkish lira firmed after weakening to 8 per dollar on Wednesday, while the Russian rouble held near its strongest level in almost two months.

The greenback, already at a three-month low against major currencies, took a hit after data showed weekly U.S. jobless claims rose more than expected and personal income fell.

"There is going to be more dollar weakness going into 2021. Overall, it should be a good backdrop for high-beta currencies and high-beta credit in emerging markets," said Trieu Pham, EM sovereign debt strategist at ING.

The lira rose 0.5%, but has lagged its peers recently even as President Tayyip Erdogan pledged a new market-friendly era for the economy and the central bank hiked interest rates sharply earlier this month.

"We need to see much more of this and a consistent approach before people really start giving Turkey a benefit of doubt," said Thomas Christiansen, head of EM sovereign debt at UBP.

"We'd like to see maybe another hike. We'd like to see them stemming the record level of dollarisation from local depositors."

Bankers said the central bank increased the limit on forex to lira swap auctions to 60% of the banks' transaction limit from 50% previously on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a Turkish court handed down dozens of life sentences for some of the nearly 500 defendants, including army commanders and pilots, accused of leading a 2016 coup attempt from an air base near the capital Ankara.

Eyes are also on the discussion between leaders of Hungary and Poland after the two countries blocked the European Union's 1.8 trillion euro pandemic recovery plan because the money is conditional on respecting the rule of law.

The Polish zloty inched lower against the euro, while Hungary's forint held steady.

The MSCI's index of EM equities jumped 0.9%, with stock markets in India, Taiwan and Hong Kong leading the gains.

A brighter global mood has lifted the index by more than 11% in November, putting it on course for its best performance since 2018.

Ukraine's finance ministry finalised talks with the International Monetary Fund on the draft of the 2021 budget - a key condition for starting talks on the next tranche.

The hryvnia currency edged up to trade at 28.43 per dollar. For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance in 2020, see http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance in 2020, see https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX

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For RUSSIAN market report, see (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)