Central Europe’s currencies mostly stable, stocks down

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WARSAW — Central European currencies

were mostly stable on Wednesday as improvement in risk appetite

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helped local markets and the Hungarian central bank’s emergency

measures introduced last week stopped a sell-off of the local

currency.

The sentiment among investors has been improving since the

beginning of the week after the statement by a Kremlin spokesman

about the possibility of achieving Russian goals in Ukraine

through diplomatic channels, ING analysts said.

“The market is clearly hungry for good news and these rather

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enigmatic comments have turned out to be sufficient so far,”

they said in a note.

The Hungarian forint stabilized after its biggest gains in

over a decade, following the emergency measures.

Hungary’s central bank will hold its quick deposit facility

tender offered at a fixed 18% interest rate again on

Wednesday.

“It seems that Hungarian forint has stabilized for the

moment. The possibility of increasing short-term rates even to

25% could significantly mitigate the depreciation pressure,”

Erste Group said in a note.

Analysts also said that reaching an agreement with the

European Union has remained a key element that would increase

investor confidence in Hungarian assets, including the forint.

The forint was up 0.15% at 413 to the euro at 854

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GMT.

In Poland, the zloty was 0.22% lower to 4.8015 per

euro.

“The zloty versus the euro is currently the strongest for

almost a month and today’s session should not change this

situation significantly,” Millennium Bank said in a note.

Polish central banker Cezary Kochalski said on Tuesday that

the bank does not have ample room to increase rates amid an

expected economic slowdown.

Elsewhere in the region, the Romanian leu was a bit lower at

4.9345 per euro, while the Czech crown gained slightly to

24.5550 to euro.

The Czech parliament on Tuesday approved raising this year’s

state budget deficit by a third to 375 billion crowns, meaning

the state would have to boost its borrowing via government bond

auctions which could have an effect on the country’s credit

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rating.

Stock markets were mostly lower with the Warsaw blue chip

index 0.94% down. Budapest was 1.37% down, while

Prague lost 2.48%.

CEE SNAPSHOT AT

MARKETS 1054 CET

CURRENCI

ES

Latest Previous Daily Change

bid close change in 2022

EURCZK Czech

EURHUF Hungary

EURPLN Polish

EURRON Romanian

EURHRK Croatian

EURRSD Serbian

Note: calculated from 1800

daily CET

change

Latest Previous Daily Change

close change in 2022

.PX Prague 1139.01 1167.920 -2.48% #VALUE!

0

.BUX Budapest 40348.18 40910.44 -1.37% -20.45%

.WIG20 Warsaw <.wig20>

.BETI Buchares 10992.76 10953.44 +0.36% -15.84%

t

.SBITO Ljubljan <.sbito p a>

.CRBEX Zagreb <.crbex>

.BELEX Belgrade <.belex>

.SOFIX Sofia <.sofix>

Yield Yield Spread Daily

(bid) change vs Bund change

in

Czech spread

Republic

CZ2YT= 2-year s

CZ5YT= 5-year s

CZ10YT s

Poland

PL2YT= 2-year s

PL5YT= 5-year s

PL10YT s

FORWARD

3×6 6×9 9×12 3M

interba

nk

Czech

Hungary

Poland

Note: are for ask

FRA prices

quotes

**********************************************

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(Reporting by Anna Koper in Warsaw, Gergely Szakacs in

Budapest; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)