BUDAPEST, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Eastern Europe's currencies
opened firmer on Wednesday with the forint leading gains, and
dealers said there was room for further rises after Asian stocks
rallied on upbeat U.S. economic news and the dollar slipped.
The Czech crown <EURCZK=>, which shrugged off political
turmoil on Tuesday, held onto its gains and some analysts said a
delay in elections there could provide further support to the
currency as it is seen positive for budget plans.
"I was surprised to see this strong opening this morning,
the EURUSD is almost 1.47 and the zloty also firmed," a Budapest
based dealer said.
Dealers said the forint <EURHUF=>, which was up 0.6 percent
at 0707 GMT, was likely to remain stuck in a range between 270
and 272 versus the euro.
Asian stocks surged to their highest level this year while
the U.S. dollar eased, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke said the U.S. recession was "very likely over" though
he added the recovery would be very slow. []
The Polish zloty <EURPLN=> was up 0.4 percent, trading at
4.14 versus the euro.
"Continuation of good sentiment may help the zloty
strengthen to around 4.10 against the euro during Wednesday's
session," bank BPH said in a morning note.
It added though that a possible reverse in the movement of
the euro-dollar cross may lead to a weakening of the zloty.
"The EUR-USD pair is nearing a significant resistance level
of 1.47. Today's domestic data (corporate wages) may only have a
small and short-term impact on the zloty," it added.
Poland's statistics office publishes August corporate sector
wages <PLWAGE=ECI> data later in the day and analysts expect
wages to have grown by 3.7 percent year-on-year, below the 3.9
percent growth reported for July.
The Czech crown is not expected to react strongly on
Wednesday when talks should continue on the next steps after
leftist parties scuppered plans for November early elections.
Some analysts said the delay in the elections was positive
for the budget which needs cuts, while others said budget
problems were far from being resolved.
"The delay of the general election to the regular time partly
minimises the risk of an interim budget regime. On the other
hand, the current composition of parliament, as well as a
protracted pre-election period, represents a marked risk that the
deterioration of the fiscal stance will continue," said Vojtech
Benda, a senior analyst at ING in Prague.
"Once the market realises the budget puzzle has not been
solved yet, the crown should scrap its recent gains."
"We believe that if the Czech caretaker government remains
in power it could be positive for the CZK as the interim
government could push though important budget cuts for next
year," Danske Bank said in a morning note.
The Romanian leu held largely steady on Wednesday, with
regional optimism offset by uncertainty over IMF-mandated fiscal
reforms and the stability of Romania's ruling centre-left
coalition.
--------------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT--------------------
Currency Latest Previous Local Local
close currency currency
change change
today in 2009
Czech crown <EURCZK=> 25.317 25.355 +0.15% +5.67%
Polish zloty <EURPLN=> 4.142 4.159 +0.41% -0.65%
Hungarian forint <EURHUF=> 270.42 272.11 +0.62% -2.54%
Croatian kuna <EURHRK=> 7.313 7.323 +0.14% +0.71%
Romanian leu <EURRON=> 4.258 4.262 +0.09% -5.72%
Serbian dinar <EURRSD=> 93.46 93.45 -0.01% -4.26%
All data taken from Reuters at 0905 CET.
Currency percent change calculated from the daily domestic
close at 1600 GMT.
(Reporting by regional bureaux, writing by Krisztina Than;
Editing by Andy Bruce)
