Yahoo Finance

(Corrects paragraph 13 to read 2.073% instead of 22.073%; fixes typo in paragraph 12) WARSAW, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The Hungarian forint hit a record low for the second day in a row on Tuesday ahead of a central bank meeting in the country where rate-setters are expected to leave the cost of borrowing unchanged. Hungary's base rate is the lowest in the region at 0.9% and analysts expect the central bank to keep it there in 2019 and 2020. Like other central banks in the region the National Bank of Hungary has pursued a wait-and-see policy, with monetary easing in major global economies offsetting domestic inflation concerns. "Inflation is still above-target in Hungary – hence, no immediate policy easing is on the menu – but, the continuing slide of the HUF exchange rate suggests that the FX market may be preparing for MNB to return to monetary easing at some point again," Commerzbank analysts said in a note. The forint hit a record low against the euro of 336.02 in morning trade before paring its losses to trade at 335.2 at 0919 GMT. The Czech crown was 0.09% stronger at 25.865 and the Polish zloty was 0.35% stronger at 4.3765. "It was at elevated levels so maybe some market players decided to buy zloty because it was cheap," said a Warsaw-based currency trader. Czech central bankers will meet on Wednesday and analysts expect them to leave rates unchanged. The central bank has paused its two-year tightening cycle since delivering a rate hike in May, when it raised the key two-week repo rate by 25 basis points to 2.00%, the highest since 2008. In Poland, the registered unemployment rate remained stable at 5.2% in August, in line with analysts' expectations. "At the end of the year it may increase around 5.3-5.4%," Monika Kurtek, chief economist at Bank Pocztowy said in a note. "Higher values, despite the slowdown of the Polish economy, should not be expected due to the limited supply of workers in Poland." Polish yields were little changed at the shorter end of the curve, but 10-year yields rose 2.8 basis points to 2.073%. The spread against German bunds was up 2 basis points. "The extension of the spread of Polish bonds over German (the PL-DE 10Y spread increased by nearly 10 bp on Monday) in part reflects the assessment of credit risk in connection with the possible announcement of the CJEU ruling at the beginning of October," PKO Bank Polski analysts said in a note The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJUE) is scheduled to make a decision on abusive clauses in Swiss-franc mortgages issued to Polish customers in October. Czech 10-year yields were little changed at 1.3410%. Stocks were higher with Warsaw's blue-chip WIG 20 index up 0.48% and Prague's PX index up 0.28%. mBank was the best performer in Warsaw, rising 5% after it announced that parent Commerzbank plans to sell its stake in the lender. CEE SNAPSHOT AT MARKETS 1119 CET CURRENCI ES Latest Previous Daily Change bid close change in 2019 Czech 25.8650 25.8870 +0.09% -0.61% crown Hungary 335.2000 335.1500 -0.01% -4.21% forint Polish 4.3765 4.3916 +0.35% -1.99% zloty Romanian 4.7485 4.7500 +0.03% -1.99% leu Croatian 7.4040 7.4081 +0.06% +0.08% kuna Serbian 117.4800 117.6000 +0.10% +0.70% dinar Note: calculated from 1800 CET daily change Latest Previous Daily Change close change in 2019 Prague 1047.95 1045.030 +0.28% +6.22% 0 Budapest 40840.87 40800.21 +0.10% +4.35% Warsaw 2157.63 2147.32 +0.48% -5.23% Bucharest 9520.24 9542.83 -0.24% +28.94% Ljubljana 864.75 856.77 +0.93% +7.52% Zagreb 1924.57 1921.25 +0.17% +10.05% Belgrade <.BELEX15 753.64 754.04 -0.05% -1.06% > Sofia 573.14 572.86 +0.05% -3.59% BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs Bund change in Czech spread Republic 2-year <CZ2YT=RR 1.3410 0.0990 +205bps +9bps > 5-year <CZ5YT=RR 1.0680 -0.0030 +183bps -1bps > 10-year <CZ10YT=R 1.3410 -0.0050 +191bps -2bps R> Poland 2-year <PL2YT=RR 1.4660 -0.0010 +218bps -1bps > 5-year <PL5YT=RR 1.8340 0.0210 +260bps +1bps > 10-year <PL10YT=R 2.0730 0.0280 +264bps +2bps R> FORWARD RATE AGREEMEN T 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interban k Czech Rep < 2.16 2.09 1.96 2.14 PRIBOR=> Hungary < 0.28 0.33 0.37 0.21 BUBOR=> Poland < 1.73 1.70 1.67 1.72 WIBOR=> Note: FRA are for ask prices quotes ************************************************** ************ (Reporting by Alan Charlish in Warsaw, Gergely Szakacs in Budapest and Jason Hovet in Prague, additional reporting by Marcin Goclowski, editing by Ed Osmond)