Warsaw shares hit four-month low, forint lowest since January

Warsaw shares hit four-month low, forint lowest since January

20 Mar    Finance News, PMN Business, REU

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PRAGUE — Hungary’s forint hit an

11-week low on Monday, Warsaw’s blue-chip index fell to its

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lowest in over four months, and Prague stocks touched a

two-month low as markets digested Credit Suisse’s state-backed

rescue.

Shares in European banking stocks fell more than 2% in early

trading before recovering ground following a weekend that saw

the rescue of Credit Suisse by UBS and a

coordinated central bank effort to ensure global cash flows.

Central Europe’s banks fell, with some Polish banks dropping

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over 5%. Hungary’s OTP Bank also shed over 5%.

Among currencies, the forint led losses, stuck

beyond the sensitive 400 per euro level – down 0.9% at 401.00 by

0846 GMT. The forint has given up all of its 2023 gains – which

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had been around 7% – this month.

“Negative news have a much bigger impact on the forint,

which is due to its high Beta, and to the fact that its gains

since the start of the year were due to the inflow of hot

money,” Magyar Bankholding said.

Hungary’s central bank has maintained an 18% quick deposit

rate since last October, when the forint hit record lows above

430 to the euro. Its base rate of 13% is also the highest in the

European Union.

Elsewhere, the Czech crown was down beyond the 24

per euro level and has fallen over 1% in the last week. Poland’s

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zloty dropped 0.2% to 4.7145 to the euro.

UBS’s state-backed takeover of Credit Suisse Group was

orchestrated to try to restore confidence in a battered sector.

Investor focus shifted on Monday to the massive hit some

Credit Suisse bondholders will take.

Czech central bank Vice-Governor Jan Frait was quoted as

saying in an interview with Hospodarske Noviny published on

Monday that Czech banks had no significant ties to Credit Suisse

and that risk to the domestic sector was small or negligible.

Prague’s stock index fell over 1%, with dual-listed Austrian

bank Erste Group losing over 3%. The fall in Czech banks

Komercni Banka and Moneta Money Bank was less.

Warsaw’s WIG20 was down 2%.

CEE SNAPSHO AT

MARKETS T 0946

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CET

CURRENC

IES

Latest Previou Daily Change

s

bid close change in 2023

EURCZK Czech

EURHUF Hungary 0 0

EURPLN Polish

EURRON Romanian

EURHRK Croatian

EURRSD Serbian 0 0

Note: calculated from 1800

daily CET

change

Latest Previou Daily Change

s

close change in 2023

.PX Prague 1301.41 1317.55 -1.23% +8.29%

00

.BUX Budapest 40181.5 40771.2 -1.45% -8.25%

0 4

.WIG20 Warsaw <.wig20>

.BETI Buchares 12110.0 12227.1 -0.96% +3.83%

t 2 2

.SBITO Ljubljan <.sbito p a> %

.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

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

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

(Reporting by Jason Hovet in Prague and Krisztina Than in

Budapest; editing by Barbara Lewis)

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