* Leu consolidates around 4.3/eur as IMF visits
* Romania debt tender, Polish cbank minutes due
* Zloty, crown near recent levels
PRAGUE, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Emerging European currencies
edged up along with stock markets on Thursday, with only the leu
trailing as uncertainty over Romania's IMF-mandated austerity
drive kept the currency near a 3-1/2 month low.
Bargain hunters moved in to central European stocks, which
have lost ground for much of this week. Central Europe's
largest-listed company CEZ <> gained 1 percent after
the power group's shares had earlier hit 1-1/2 year lows.
The rise in equities gave a boost to currencies that have
been pressured by persistent worries about Romania's and
Hungary's budget plans.
The leu dipped to its lowest level since July 2 earlier this
week after the leftist opposition announced a parliamentary vote
of no-confidence against a fragile government.
On Wednesday, parliament approved a proposal from the
leftist opposition to cut VAT for basic foodstuffs to 5 percent
from 24 percent, in a move that may complicate a review of the
country's 20 billion euro bailout with a visiting IMF team.
The leu <EURRON=> lost 0.1 percent to bid at 4.312 to the
euro by 0800 GMT, while the Hungarian forint <EURHUF=> recovered
0.2 percent to 275.6.
"We see consolidation around 4.3 unless something bad, like
a government collapse, happens," said one dealer in Bucharest.
Government officials said the VAT cut was not supported by
the ruling coalition and some deputies had backed it by mistake.
The governing Democrat Liberal party would try and prevent its
passage into law or have it revoked. []
The finance ministry plans to sell 300 million lei of 5-year
treasury bonds on Thursday. Analysts said that, if it is
successful, next Wednesday's no-confidence vote could force debt
managers to reduce maturities if they wanted to stick to their
7-percent yield cap strategy.
In Poland, the zloty <EURPLN=> added 0.1 percent to hold
around 3.95 before the release of central bank minutes, release
around 1200 GMT, from the last the central bank meeting.
The minutes should give clues on how will the bank would be
to hike interest rates.
"Investors will try to evaluate (from September's minutes) a
scale of probability to form a majority to back monetary policy
tightening at the sitting next week," analysts at BPH bank wrote
in a morning note.
Analysts polled by Reuters expect the 10-strong body to
raise rates by 25 basis points by the end of the year, though
they are split over the timing of any hike.
The Czech crown <EURCZK=>, often seen as a safe haven trade
within the region, was up a touch on the strong side of the
24.50 per euro level it has held around this month.
--------------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT--------------------
Currency Latest Previous Local Local
close currency currency
change change
today in 2010
Czech crown <EURCZK=> 24.499 24.511 +0.05% +7.42%
Polish zloty <EURPLN=> 3.955 3.959 +0.1% +3.77%
Hungarian forint <EURHUF=> 275.6 276.23 +0.23% -1.9%
Croatian kuna <EURHRK=> 7.337 7.33 -0.1% -0.38%
Romanian leu <EURRON=> 4.312 4.307 -0.12% -1.73%
Serbian dinar <EURRSD=> 105.99 106.00 +0.01% -9.54%
All data taken from Reuters at 1001 CET.
Currency percent change calculated from the daily domestic
close at 1600 GMT.
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(Reporting by Reuters bureaus, writing by Jason Hovet;
Editing by John Stonestreet)
