Slovak crown up with region, eyes repo tender

    The Slovak crown firmed 
against the euro as other central European currencies gained on 
Monday, and traders said further near-term trend would depend on 
the result of the central bank's repo tender on Tuesday. 
    The crown firmed as far as 34.740 per euro, but then eased 
back to 34.780 per euro  as of 1515 GMT. It was at 
34.845 late on Friday. 
    "Tuesday's repo auction will be the first point of interest 
before Friday's inflation data," 4cast wrote in a market note. 
    The central bank (NBS) had rejected part of the bids made in 
the repo auctions in the first four weeks of 2007 to leave banks 
with excess crown liquidity and thus cap the rise of the local 
currency. 
    The NBS accepted all bids in last week's repo tender, but 
some analysts said crown firming in the past few days could 
spark a new central bank action against the crown. 
------------------ MARKET SNAPSHOT AT 1515 GMT ----------------- 
Crown/euro  34.770 vs 34.845 on Friday (+0.23 pct) 
Crown/dollar   26.886 vs 26.752 (-0.50 pct) 
5-yr govt bond  yield 4.280/090 vs 4.305/143 pct 
7-yr govt bond  yield 4.250/050 vs 4.350/219 pct 
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[BRATISLAVA/Reuters/Finance.cz]