WARSAW, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The Hungarian forint
touched a new record low against the euro on Thursday, with
central European currencies taking a hit from worsening risk
sentiment due to rising fears over the spread of a new flu-like
virus that started in China.
The forint was the region's worst performing currency in
2019 and has shed a further 1.7% so far in 2020. Hungary's
ultra-dovish central bank is not expected to take any action on
interest rates at a policy meeting next week.
The forint firmed near the 334 mark on Monday, when the
central bank unexpectedly rejected all bids at a weekly FX swap
tender, a move that curbed the banking sector's liquidity by 38
billion forints. But the impact has been short-lived.
At 1011 GMT, the forint was bid at 336.80 against the euro,
down 0.1% on Thursday, after touching a record low of 337.55
earlier in the session.
"It is hard to imagine that in the long-run the central bank
will manage the exchange rate with this EUR/HUF swap tender in
the 330-335 range," a Budapest-based currency dealer said.
"The move to reject bids at Monday's tender helped the forint
firm near the 334 mark, but it could not firm past that level.
It remains to be seen what the central bank does at next
Monday's tender and at Tuesday's rate meeting."
All 18 analysts surveyed in a Reuters poll said Hungary's
base rate would remain at 0.9%, with inflation set
to retreat slowly from December's seven-year highs and economic
growth to lose steam in coming years.
The Czech crown, which has already scaled
seven-year highs this year, was down 0.1% against the euro at
25.167, while the Polish zloty fell 0.1% to 4.246. The
Romanian leu was stable.
Bond yields fell in line with core-market peers as investors
looked for safety amid fears around the coronavirus outbreak and
awaited a meeting of the European Central Bank, which is set to
launch a broad policy review that is likely to redefine its
inflation goal.
At 0952 GMT, benchmark Polish 10-year yields
were down just over 1 basis point at 2.257% and Czech ten-year
yields fell over 5 basis points to 1.683%.
The yield on Czech bonds due 2033
has dropped over 20 basis points in the past two days, which a
trader attributed to speculations that it could be added to a
JPMorgan emerging markets bond index.
Central European stocks were mixed, with Warsaw's WIG 20
index rising 0.3%. Prague's PX index touched its
highest level since August 2011 before giving up its gains to
turn negative on the day.
London- and Prague-listed antivirus software company Avast
has been the PX index's biggest gainer this
year with a 16% rise, but was down 1.2% by mid-morning.
CEE SNAPSHO AT
MARKETS T 1111
CET
CURRENC
IES
Latest Previou Daily Change
s
bid close change in 2020
EURCZK Czech <EURCZK 25.1670 25.1405 -0.11% +1.05%
= crown =>
EURHUF Hungary <EURHUF 336.800 336.420 -0.11% -1.68%
= forint => 0 0
EURPLN Polish <EURPLN 4.2460 4.2407 -0.12% +0.24%
= zloty =>
EURRON Romanian <EURRON 4.7790 4.7788 -0.00% +0.19%
= leu =>
EURHRK Croatian <EURHRK 7.4455 7.4375 -0.11% -0.00%
= kuna =>
EURRSD Serbian <EURRSD 117.520 117.550 +0.03% +0.04%
= dinar => 0 0
Note: calculated from 1800
daily CET
change Latest Previou Daily Change
s
close change in 2020
.PX Prague 1139.90 1140.48 -0.05% +2.18%
00
.BUX Budapest 44508.9 44597.0 -0.20% -3.42%
1 5
.WIG20 Warsaw <.WIG20 2150.04 2146.56 +0.16% -0.00%
>
.BETI Buchares 10210.1 10131.7 +0.77% +2.33%
t 9 7
.SBITO Ljubljan <.SBITO 965.91 967.78 -0.19% +4.33%
P a P>
.CRBEX Zagreb <.CRBEX 2056.02 2051.37 +0.23% +1.91%
>
.BELEX Belgrade <.BELEX 794.30 803.45 -1.14% -0.92%
15 15>
.SOFIX Sofia <.SOFIX 583.86 584.90 -0.18% +2.77%
> Yield Yield Spread Daily
(bid) change vs Bund change
in
Czech spread
Republic
CZ2YT= 2-year <CZ2YT= 1.7350 -0.0160 +233bp -1bps
RR RR> s
CZ5YT= 5-year <CZ5YT= 1.6160 -0.0590 +216bp -6bps
RR RR> s
CZ10YT <CZ10YT 1.6790 -0.0560 +196bp -4bps
=RR 10-year =RR> s
Poland
PL2YT= 2-year <PL2YT= 1.5420 -0.0290 +213bp -3bps
RR RR> s
PL5YT= 5-year <PL5YT= 1.9380 -0.0120 +248bp -1bps
RR RR> s
PL10YT <PL10YT 2.2620 -0.0080 +254bp +1bps
=RR 10-year =RR> s
FORWARD
3x6 6x9 9x12 3M
interba
nk
Czech <CZKFRA 2.23 2.22 2.19 2.17
Rep ><PRIBO
R=>
Hungary <HUFFRA 0.35 0.48 0.60 0.19
><BUBOR
=>
Poland <PLNFRA 1.75 1.77 1.79 1.71
><WIBOR
=>
Note: are for ask
FRA prices
quotes
********************************************
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(Reporting by Alan Charlish in Warsaw, Gergely Szakacs in
Budapest and Jason Hovet in Prague; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.