Forint wobbles on interbank market after firming
The forint was trading at 305.66 to the euro late Friday on the interbank forex market, slightly up from 305.77 late Thursday. At 305.33 to the euro early Friday, the forint moved between 303.05, a five-day high and 305.83 after a two-week low at 308.25 on Wednesday. At 301.96 last week Friday intraday, it hit a nine-month high.
It is down 0.85% from late last Friday after a gain of 0.70% over last week. It is up 3.61% from the end of last year, after it lost 6.12% last year, and 1.95% in 2013.
The US dollar knocked the euro to a new 11-1/2-year low and the Hungarian currency to a 12-year trough after stronger than expected US employment data out late afternoon reminded investors of the chance of an earlier-than-thought rate hike by the Fed.
Earlier in the day, along with Central European currencies, the Hungarian forint extended gains while its sovereign yields fell on the secondary market, helped by strong Q4 GDP figures from Hungary that decrease the chance for a large policy rate cut by the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) later in the month, and by hopes that Moody's may improve the country's credit rating in a review expected for late Friday.
However, most analysts expect only an improvement of the outlook to positive from stable on Hungary's junk rating.
Expectations for the ECB's new rain of money, which is to begin dripping on Monday, also supported the forint.
The forint traded at 281.29 to the dollar, down from 277.20 late Thursday. On Friday, it moved between 275.92 and 281.49, a 12-year low.
It was quoted at 286.25 to the Swiss franc, down from 284.50 late Thursday. Its range on Friday was 282.95, a five-day high, to 286.51 after a two-week low at 288.20 on Wednesday. It reached the highest at 281.07 last week Thursday since its crash to an all-time low at 378.49 on January 15 when the Swiss central bank scrapped its cap of 1.20 to the euro.
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