BUDAPEST, March 16 (Reuters) - East Europe's currencies held
stable on Wednesday, helped by a rebound of Asian stocks, but
Japan's nuclear crisis weighed on sentiment, while Hungarian
markets were eyeing further news about a planned dollar bond
issue.
Local markets will be also watching Polish unemployment and
wages data after figures on Tuesday which showed that Poland's
inflation was lower than forecast in February, boosting
expectations that the data may help persuade the central bank to
keep rates steady in April.
Asian financial markets rose on Wednesday with Tokyo stocks
rebounding after a steep two-day selloff, but another fire at
the earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant north of
Tokyo and fears of more radiation leaks kept investors on edge.
The impact from the Japanese developments on eastern
European markets had been fairly contained so far.
A Budapest-based dealer said the forint's weakening was
likely to remain modest on Wednesday after markets reopened
after a long weekend due to national holidays, with the currency
seen trading within a range of 272.50-275 versus the euro.
Hungarian markets will be looking for news from a roadshow
of the Hungarian government which starts this week in Europe and
the United States and which is expected to lead to an issue of a
new dollar benchmark bond. []
In Poland, the focus will be on wages data as investors seek
further clues about the rate policy outlook.
"Unemployment and wages data will be of interest in Poland
especially after February CPI proved a downside surprise
yesterday," BNP Paribas said in a note.
"Given the CPI surprise, the market is now expecting rates
to stay unchanged in April."
Poland's consumer price inflation <PLCPIY=ECI> stood at 3.6
percent year-on-year in February, unchanged from January's
revised 3.6 percent, statistics office data showed on Tuesday,
which cooled rate hike expectations for April.
By 0836 GMT the forint <EURHUF=> was down 0.1 percent while
the Polish zloty <EURPLN=> had gained 0.2 percent, while the
Czech crown <EURCZK=> and the Romanian leu <EURRON=> were flat
from Tuesday's close.
Budapest stocks <> fell 0.86 percent by 0834 GMT, while
Warsaw stocks <> were also down 0.6 percent. The Prague
<> bourse was up 0.7 percent.
The crown was treading water, and dealers said it may draw
some support from rising equity markets <> and stronger
retail sales data than expected. []
"The retail sales were better and might be a good sign for
EUR/CZK," a Prague dealer said, but adding the crown was stuck
within ranges and players were still cautious in the market.
"There are still nice flows coming to the market but nobody
wants an excessive move."
--------------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT--------------------
Currency Latest Previous Local Local
close currency currency
change change
today in 2011
Czech crown <EURCZK=> 24.391 24.382 -0.04% +2.5%
Polish zloty <EURPLN=> 4.045 4.052 +0.17% -2.15%
Hungarian forint <EURHUF=> 274.18 273.89 -0.11% +1.39%
Croatian kuna <EURHRK=> 7.371 7.382 +0.15% +0.12%
Romanian leu <EURRON=> 4.176 4.176 0% +1.36%
Serbian dinar <EURRSD=> 102.57 102.58 +0.01% +3.27%
All data taken from Reuters at 0935 CET.
Currency percent change calculated from the daily domestic
close at 1700 GMT.
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(Reporting by Krisztina Than; editing by Toby Chopra)
