Slovak crown up, further firming seen limited

    The Slovak crown rose 0.3 
percent against the euro on Wednesday, but traders said room for 
further gains was limited due to the central bank's (NBS) fight 
against the unit's strength. 
    The crown moved between 34.300 and 34.430 to the euro on 
Wednesday. It was quoted at 34.335  as of 1500 GMT, 
compared with Tuesday's close of 34.435. 
    "Trading looks balanced after (the NBS') interventions," one 
trader with a foreign bank in Bratislava said. "The crown might 
firm, but it won't be that fast as it was at the year-end." 
    The central bank stepped into the market last week to knock 
the surging crown from a record high of 34.050 per euro. The NBS 
also rejected part of bids in the regular weekly 
liquidity-draining tender on Tuesday. 
    The crown, the best performing currency in central Europe 
over the past year, is now trading 10.7 percent above its 
central parity within the Exchange Rate Mechanism 2 (ERM-2), 
which Slovakia joined in November 2005. 
----------------- MARKET SNAPSHOT AT 1500 GMT ----------------- 
 Crown/euro  34.335 vs 34.435 on Tuesday (+0.29 pct) 
 Crown/dollar   25.966 vs 25.938 (-0.11 pct) 
5-yr govt bond  yield unchanged at 4.374/4.173 
8-yr govt bond  yield 4.176/3.975 vs 4.251/4.101 
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[BRATISLAVA/Reuters/Finance.cz]