Slovak crown slightly up, seen eyeing region

    The Slovak crown was a touch 
stronger against the euro on Monday and dealers said the mood on 
emerging markets would drive the currency over the next few days 
in the absence of domestic factors. 
    The crown traded at 34.470 to the euro as of 0905 GMT, 
compared with 34.515 late on Friday. 
    "Crown moves will depend on developments with the Polish 
zloty and Hungarian forint this week," said Tatra Banka dealer 
Boris Somorovsky. 
    The Slovak unit was volatile last week. Softer emerging 
markets and central bank efforts to slow down the crown's 
record-breaking rise initially pushed it down, but it recovered 
some of its losses late in the week on news that Slovakia was 
close to sealing a major investment project. 
    The crown, the best performing currency in central Europe 
last year with a 9.7 percent gain against the euro, is now some 
1.1 percent below all-time highs of 34.050 per euro hit shortly 
before the end of 2006. 
    Traders expected the crown to move in a wider range of 
34.400-34.750 per euro in the near term, and saw investors' 
interest in opening new positions at weaker levels. 
----------------- MARKET SNAPSHOT AT 0905 GMT ----------------- 
 Crown/euro  34.465 vs 34.515 on Friday (+0.15 pct) 
 Crown/dollar   26.470 vs 26.552 (+0.31 pct) 
5-yr govt bond  yield 4.300/4.100 vs 4.219/4.020 
7-yr govt bond  yield 4.237/4.037 vs 4.196/3.996 
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[BRATISLAVA/Reuters/Finance.cz]