BUDAPEST, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Emerging European currencies
eased on Thursday morning, giving back some of the gains made on
recent good news on the budget front from many countries, but
trading remained illiquid and the mood positive, dealers said.
"This year has not really started yet," one dealer said in
Budapest. "People try to focus on the good news and allocate
money accordingly, but liquidity remains low."
All currencies edged lower, with the Polish zloty <EURPLN=>
giving up a quarter of one percent against the euro by 0827 GMT,
while the Czech crown <EURCZK=>, the Hungarian forint <EURHUF=>
and the Romanian leu <EURRON=> each dipped 0.1 percent.
Regional dealers said they looked at core markets going
ahead, for lack of better clues.
"The market should be stable today, everybody is waiting for
tomorrow's U.S. (payrolls) data. The only thing that could
surprise markets today is retail sales and consumer sentiment in
the euro zone," said one Warsaw-based dealer.
Polish assets on Wednesday strengthened after central bank
governor Slawomir Skrzypek said the bank posted a sizeable
profit in 2009, which would help budget revenues in 2010.
The 2009 central budget deficit was also lower than the
expected 27.2 billion zlotys, the finance ministry said on
Wednesday, spurring further gains in the zloty.
The forint remained near multi-week highs after recent news
that the 2009 budget deficit came in significantly lower than
expected in Hungary as well.
And the leu, which far outperformed regional peers on
Tuesday on large bank orders and renewed confidence in Romania's
financial stability, also held on to most of those gains on
Thursday.
"We still like the RON given relatively high carry (despite
rate cut on Monday), improved current account balance, better
chance of receiving another IMF tranche and some catch up
potential vs. its CEE peers," UniCredit said in a note.
The leu is now expected to trade between 4.12 and 4.18 in
the short term after being stuck north of 4.20 for months.
Markets in Romania were watching if the finance ministry
tries to bring the yield on 5-year T-bonds below the cut-off
level of 10 percent. Romania plans to sell 500 million lei of
the paper on Thursday, and 4 billion in all of January. <BNR030>
"There is a better sentiment on Romania recently, and we may
see the finance ministry is able to sell paper with a lower
yield," one dealer said. "I suspect (the ministry) will aim for
9.5 percent."
--------------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT--------------------
Currency Latest Previous Local Local
close currency currency
change change
today in 2010
Czech crown <EURCZK=> 26.304 26.27 -0.13% +0.05%
Polish zloty <EURPLN=> 4.105 4.095 -0.24% -0.02%
Hungarian forint <EURHUF=> 268.71 268.57 -0.05% +0.61%
Croatian kuna <EURHRK=> 7.287 7.288 +0.01% +0.3%
Romanian leu <EURRON=> 4.16 4.154 -0.14% +1.86%
Serbian dinar <EURRSD=> 97.27 96.87 -0.41% -1.43%
All data taken from Reuters at 0927 CET.
Currency percent change calculated from the daily domestic
close at 1700 GMT.
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(Reporting by Reuters bureaux, writing by Marton Dunai;
Editing by Toby Chopra)
