(Adds EU court ruling, releads)
By Radu-Sorin Marinas
BUCHAREST, April 29 (Reuters) - Polish stocks led regional
gains on Thursday after a European court ruling on
foreign-currency mortgages perceived as benign by investors,
while central European currencies firmed on a U.S. dollar
decline on world markets.
By 1120 GMT, Warsaw's blue chip index rose as high
as 2,081.94, about 2.2% up on the day, and the banks index
went up 5.2% to a 14-month high of 6.007.
"Today's judgment of the CJEU (Court of Justice of the
European Union) was perceived as positive, as it clearly does
not exacerbate the problem of Swiss franc loans for banks," said
Maciej Marcinowski, an analyst at Trigon.
Mortgages taken out in Swiss francs are a major risk factor
for Polish banks. The CJEU ruling kicks off a crucial fortnight
that may decide how courts treat such cases and whether banks
decide to sign up to a plan for out-of-court settlements.
Thousands of Polish borrowers took out franc loans more than
a decade ago to take advantage of low Swiss interest rates but
were then hit by ballooning repayments when the zloty weakened
sharply against the Swiss currency.
In the foreign exchange market, Hungary's forint
extended the previous day's gains to add 0.58% at 360.07 per
euro, outperforming regional peers for the third consecutive
session. The zloty followed, firming 0.43% to 4.5678.
Erste Bank said in a note that "as has been broadly
expected", the U.S. Federal Reserve kept monetary policy
unchanged, signalling it was not yet ready to cut support to the
economy.
"The U.S. dollar depreciated after the announcement, CEE
currencies benefited," Erste said.
Hungary's central bank said on Tuesday it was ready to
prevent any sustained rise in Hungarian inflation as the economy
recovers from pandemic-induced shock also continued to support
the currency.
Elsewhere, the Czech crown was up 0.2% to trade at
25.8640 to the euro and the Romanian leu was up 0.1%
at 4.9235.
CEE SNAPSHOT AT
MARKETS 1125 CET
CURRENCI
ES
Latest Previous Daily Change
bid close change in 2021
Czech 25.8640 25.9100 +0.18% +1.41%
crown
Hungary 360.1000 362.1800 +0.58% +0.73%
forint
Polish 4.5667 4.5875 +0.46% -0.16%
zloty
Romanian 4.9230 4.9284 +0.11% -1.18%
leu
Croatian 7.5580 7.5600 +0.03% -0.14%
kuna
Serbian 117.5500 117.6250 +0.06% +0.02%
dinar
Note: calculated from 1800
daily CET
change Latest Previous Daily Change
close change in 2021
Prague 1109.39 1103.710 +0.51% +8.01%
0
Budapest 44015.42 43549.43 +1.07% +4.53%
Warsaw 2070.28 2029.64 +2.00% +4.35%
Buchares 11466.44 11398.47 +0.60% +16.94%
t
Ljubljan 1066.31 1057.91 +0.79% +18.37%
a
Zagreb 1882.34 1886.94 -0.24% +8.22%
Belgrade <.BELEX15 756.02 770.56 -1.89% +0.99%
>
Sofia 521.95 523.94 -0.38% +16.63%
Yield Yield Spread Daily
(bid) change vs Bund change
in
Czech spread
Republic
2-year <CZ2YT=RR 0.5910 -0.0460 +128bp -5bps
> s
5-year <CZ5YT=RR 1.3080 -0.1260 +188bp -14bps
> s
<CZ10YT=R 1.7370 -0.0090 +195bp -3bps
10-year R> s
Poland
2-year <PL2YT=RR 0.1110 0.0110 +080bp +1bps
> s
5-year <PL5YT=RR 0.8480 0.0150 +142bp +1bps
> s
<PL10YT=R 1.6300 0.0380 +184bp +2bps
10-year R> s
FORWARD
3x6 6x9 9x12 3M
interban
k
Czech < 0.43 0.65 0.98 0.36
Rep PRIBOR=>
Hungary < 0.97 1.14 1.31 0.79
BUBOR=>
Poland < 0.25 0.29 0.40 0.21
WIBOR=>
Note: are for ask prices
FRA
quotes
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**************
(Additional reporting by Anita Komuves in Budapest, Jason Hovet
in Prague, Anna Wlodarczak Semczuk and Alan Charlish in Warsaw;
Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Mark Heinrich)
