Crown closes weaker at Kc15.16/USD, Kc23.83/EUR

The crown climbed to Kc14.97/USD and Kc23.76/EUR early in the afternoon.

Patria Finance analyst Tomas Vlk assigned the crown's upward journey to falling prices of shares, expensive oil and the weak dollar.

Decision of the European Central Bank (ECB) on a rate hike by a quarter point to 4.25 percent was another important factor.

"A press conference after the ECB decision, however, changed the situation and the crown weakened to Kc15.10 per dollar," said Jan Vejmelek of Komercni banka.

The Czech crown also set a new record to the British pound at Kc29.75/GBP. "A series of bad news is behind suggesting that interest rates will not increase in Britain," said Vladimir Pikora, an analyst at Next Finance.

At 17:00 the dollar firmed markedly to the euro to USD1.571 from the morning's USD1.588/EUR.