By Bansari Mayur Kamdar
Feb 8 (Reuters) – The Polish zloty crawled higher on Wednesday ahead of a central bank rate decision, while Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul suspended trading of stocks after a steep slide following a devastating earthquake in the south of the country on Monday.
The Borsa Istanbul suspended trading on its equity and derivatives markets after two market-wide circuit breakers failed to stop a slide in the main index .XU100, which fell 7% within the first hour of trading.
In central and eastern Europe, the Hungarian forint EURHUF= led gains among regional peers against the euro, while Poland’s zloty EURPLN= edged 0.2% higher ahead of the rate decision.
The Polish central bank is expected to keep rates unchanged at 6.75% in their decision expected at 1300 GMT.
The region’s central banks have opted to pause sharp rate-hike cycles launched in 2021, fearful of depressing growth further, but a key question is to what extent domestic demand will be hit in 2023 with inflation still running high.
“Hawkish NBP members such as Ludwik Kotecki, Joanna Tyrowicz and Przemyslaw Litwiniuk may continue to argue for rate hikes, but the hand of the doves has got much stronger recently,” said Tatha Ghose, FX analyst at Commerzbank Research, in a note.
“For now, rates are likely to remain on hold for much of 2023. The next big challenge will come if inflation were to prove stubborn in the medium-term.”
The MSCI’s index for emerging market currencies .MIEM00000CUS was flat at 0900 GMT, while stocks .MSCIEF gained 0.5%.
Russia’s rouble RUBUTSTN=MCX hit a one-month low against the greenback ahead of two OFZ treasury bond auctions.
In Asia, China and Hong Kong stocks ended the session lower, as U.S.-Sino relations remained strained after the balloon spat.
Rating agency Fitch revised its forecast for China’s economic growth in 2023 to 5% from 4.1%.
India’s central bank raised the key policy repo rate by 25 basis points, in line with economists’ expectations, and surprised markets by leaving the door open to more tightening, saying core inflation remained high.
The rupee INR= gained 0.3%, while shares extended gains.
Elsewhere, emerging markets-focused asset manager Ashmore Group ASHM.Lreported a 54% slump in its half-year profit before tax as net outflows and subdued investor risk appetite hit its assets under management.
“But I do think that markets are more constructive at the beginning of 2023 than they were for the vast majority of 2022,” Ashmore chief financial officer Tom Shippey told Reuters.
Egypt’s dollar-denominated government bonds XS1953057061=TE fell as Moody’s lowered the country’s sovereign rating by a notch to B3 from B2, citing its reduced external buffers and shock absorption capacity.
(Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
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