Slovak crown recovers on region, lacks trend

    The Slovak crown pared recent 
losses on Thursday lifted by brighter emerging market sentiment, 
and dealers said regional swings will remain the market's key 
driver in coming sessions. 
    The crown hovered between 34.450-34.550 per euro throughout 
the session, and was quoted at 34.525 per euro as of 1600 GMT, 
compared with 34.590 late on Wednesday. 
    "Global factors are moving the crown," one Bratislava-based 
trader said. "Markets have lacked a clear direction since the 
beginning of the year and the currency has been jumping up and 
down without a real trend." 
    The currency showed little reaction to a worse-than-expected 
foreign trade gap of 9.25 billion crowns in November, more than 
quadruple the market forecast of 2.3 billion crowns. 
    However, the country's booming car industry is expected to 
help bring about a significant improvement in the external 
balance in 2007 as further production capacities come on line, 
analysts said. 
----------------- MARKET SNAPSHOT AT 1600 GMT ----------------- 
 Crown/euro  34.525 vs 34.590 on Wednesday (+0.20 pct) 
 Crown/dollarb  26.768 vs 26.720 (-0.18 pct) 
5-yr govt bond  yield 4.346/4.107 vs 4.225/4.026 
7-yr govt bond  yield 4.337/4.098 vs4.240/4.110 
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[BRATISLAVA/Reuters/Finance.cz]