* FX little changed, worries over Japan to weigh on CEE
* Hungary's markets closed for national holiday
* Polish 10-yr bonds up on euro zone package
(Adds fixed income, detail)
WARSAW, March 14 (Reuters) - Central European currencies
were little changed on Monday but Japan's woes following a huge
earthquake and tsunami have hit global appetite for riskier
assets and CEE units may come under pressure in coming days.
By 0917 GMT the zloty <EURPLN=> fell some 0.3 percent
against the euro, the Czech crown <EURCZK=> edged 0.2 percent
lower, while Romania's leu <EURRON=> was up 0.1 percent.
Hungary's forint <EURHUF=> was virtually flat, with local
markets closed on Monday and Tuesday for a national holiday.
The euro -- the region's main reference currency -- trimmed
its previous losses after European leaders unexpectedly agreed
over the weekend to strengthen the euro zone's bailout fund and
other moves aimed at ending the year-long sovereign debt crisis.
[]
"Obviously the situation in Japan is negative for the
region, but we must notice that currencies reacted differently,"
said Thu Lan Nguyen, FX analyst at Commerzbank.
"The zloty was hit the most, not only because it's the most
liquid currency (in the region) but also because the country's
monetary tightening outlook has deteriorated somewhat and fiscal
concerns weigh on the unit."
Stocks in the region were also mixed, with Bucharest's BETI
<> leading regional losses, down some 0.6 percent.
Debt markets saw Polish long-dated bond yields fall some 5
basis points, with dealers attributing the move to the euro zone
agreement.
RATE OUTLOOK OVERPRICED?
The Polish zloty jumped to multi-month highs at the start of
January after central bank governor Marek Belka said the time
had come to raise interest rates, boosting expectations of
higher borrowing costs.
Since then, the zloty has lost almost 4.5 percent of its
value as comments from several other central bankers have
downplayed expectations that rates will rise again following
January's rate hike of 25 basis points.
Markets, however, are still pricing in four interest rate
increases totalling 100 basis points by the end of 2011.
Fiscal risks to Poland's economy are also seen rising as the
government aims to slash the budget deficit by nearly two-thirds
by 2012, a move many economists believe will be hard to achieve.
[]
Elsewhere, data showed Romania's trade deficit narrowed by
61 percent on an annual basis to 186 million euros in January as
exports grew faster than imports. []
Similarly, the Czech current account deficit narrowed to
0.31 billion crowns in January from 4.7 billion reported for
December. []
Poland's central bank is due to release current account data
for January at 1300 GMT. Analysts expect the figure to come in
at 1.2 billion euros.
--------------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT--------------------
Currency Latest Previous Local Local
close currency currency
change change
today in 2011
Czech crown <EURCZK=> 24.299 24.26 -0.16% +2.88%
Polish zloty <EURPLN=> 4.025 4.015 -0.25% -1.66%
Hungarian forint <EURHUF=> 272.2 272.25 +0.02% +2.12%
Croatian kuna <EURHRK=> 7.391 7.389 -0.03% -0.15%
Romanian leu <EURRON=> 4.183 4.185 +0.05% +1.2%
Serbian dinar <EURRSD=> 102.46 102.9 +0.43% +3.38%
Yield Spreads
Czech treasury bonds <0#CZBMK=>
2-yr T-bond CZ2YT=RR +4 basis points to 11bps over bmk*
7-yr T-bond CZ7YT=RR -4 basis points to +61bps over bmk*
10-yr T-bond CZ9YT=RR -2 basis points to +71bps over bmk*
Polish treasury bonds <0#PLBMK=>
2-yr T-bond PL2YT=RR +1 basis points to +345bps over bmk*
5-yr T-bond PL5YT=RR -4 basis points to +333bps over bmk*
10-yr T-bond PL10YT=RR -8 basis points to +301bps over bmk*
*Benchmark is German bond equivalent.
All data taken from Reuters at 1017 CET.
Currency percent change calculated from the daily domestic
close at 1600 GMT.
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(Reporting by Reuters bureaus, Writing by Dagmara Leszkowicz,
editing by Catherine Evans)
