* FX give up part of early gain, bonds firm
* G20 finance ministers meeting gives no impulse
* Romania leu awaits IMF details
* Serbia asks for bigger IMF help
(Adds Serbia's call for bigger IMF aid.)
By Jason Hovet and Sandor Peto
PRAGUE/BUDAPEST, March 16 (Reuters) - The zloty and the
forint edged higher on Monday, the fifth straight session when
European stocks rallied in a sign of improved risk appetite that
was good news for global emerging markets.
But the Polish and Hungarian units were off intra-day highs
and other of Central Europe's currencies battered by months of
financial crisis were flat or slightly weaker from Friday as
investors remained concerned the mood may not last.
"The dollar rebound to the euro <EUR=> might have
contributed to the retreat," one Budapest-based dealer said.
"People are still unwilling to keep short euro positions
overnight, while bank clients buy Swiss franc and euro at the
cheaper levels."
The dinar<EURRSD=> was flat at 94.178 after Serbia said that
it had asked the IMF for 3 billion euros, a billion more than
earlier planned, to help its finances.[]
The forint, zloty and Czech crown gained the most in months
last week on the back of a global stocks rally based on hopes
that the troubled banking sector was near a turning point.
Switzerland's central bank also bought foreign currencies,
bringing relief to central European households that have
borrowed in francs. []
But a pledge of support for emerging economies from the
Group of 20 nations after a weekend meeting was short on
specifics, players said, and would fail to put a floor under
markets before a broader G20 summit on April 2 []
Commerzbank said in a note that expectations were low and
countries with fragile external debt could come under pressure.
"The safe havens of the financial markets should remain in
demand. Last week's recovery should be difficult to continue
this week," the bank's analysts said.
The forint <EURHUF=> added 0.9 percent from Friday's
domestic close to 296.65 per euro by 1450 GMT. Poland's zloty
<EURPN=> gained 0.9 percent to 4.441 per euro and dealers said
4.37 may be its target. The Czech crown <EURCZK=> was unchanged.
Bond prices in the region rose.
"The forint has stabilized below (stronger than) 300, both
the spot and the swap market is pricing out the (central bank)
interest rate hike priced in earlier," one trader said.
Czech markets were looking to the government's first fixed
rate bond issue since October at an auction on Wednesday, and
dealers said expectations of new domestic issues would put the
local market under pressure.
Romania's leu <EURRON=> was down a touch but it successfully
sold some $600 million worth of domestic debt and dealers said
it would stay in tight ranges until signs emerge of the outcome
of talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on funding.
Romania is likely to become the third EU member to receive
outside aid for external financing after Hungary and Latvia.
A document over the weekend showed EU leaders will this week
raise the possibility of topping up a 25 billion euro ($32
billion) crisis fund for hard-hit eastern Europe. []
Emerging Europe's once booming economies -- fuelled in the
past with foreign credit and investment -- have been hammered by
a fall in demand for its goods from a recession-hit euro zone.
But policymakers, especially from stronger countries like
the Czech Republic and Poland, have been at pains to point out
fundamental differences in their countries, while EU leaders
have rejected proposals for a mass bailout of the region.
----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT-------------------------
Currency Latest Previous Local Local
close currency currency
change change
today in 2009
Czech crown <EURCZK=> 26.555 26.553 -0.01% +0.75%
Polish zloty <EURPLN=> 4.463 4.502 +0.87% -7.8%
Hungarian forint <EURHUF=> 296.65 299.4 +0.93% -11.16%
Croatian kuna <EURHRK=> 7.441 7.41 -0.42% -1.02%
Romanian leu <EURRON=> 4.284 4.278 -0.14% -6.29%
Serbian dinar <EURRSD=> 94.178 94.24 +0.07% -4.99%
Yield Spreads
Czech treasury bonds <0#CZBMK=>
2-yr T-bond CZ2YT=RR -1 basis points to 235bps over bmk*
4-yr T-bond CZ4YT=RR -8 basis points to +249bps over bmk*
8-yr T-bond CZ8YT=RR -6 basis points to +308bps over bmk*
Polish treasury bonds <0#PLBMK=>
2-yr T-bond PL2YT=RR -8 basis points to +424bps over bmk*
5-yr T-bond PL5YT=RR -9 basis points to +367bps over bmk*
10-yr T-bond PL10YT=RR -11 basis points to +294bps over bmk*
Hungarian treasury bonds <0#HUBMK=>
3-yr T-bond HU3YT=RR -30 basis points to +1030bps over
bmk*
5-yr T-bond HU5YT=RR -67 basis points to +950bps over bmk*
10-yr T-bond HU10YT=RR -57 basis points to +786bps over bmk*
*Benchmark is German bond equivalent.
All data taken from Reuters at 1714 CET.
Currency percent change calculated from the daily domestic
close at 1600 GMT.
For related news and prices, click on the codes in brackets:
All emerging market news []
Spot FX rates
Eastern Europe spot FX <EEFX=> Middle East spot FX <MEFX=>
Asia spot FX <ASIAFX=> Latin America spot FX <LATAMFX=>
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World central bank news [] Economic Data Guide <ECONGUIDE>
Official rates [] Emerging Diary []
Top events [] Diaries [] Diaries Index []
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus, writing by Jason Hovet/Sandor
Peto; editing by Ron Askew)
