By Anita Komuves BUDAPEST, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Central European stock indexes slipped on Friday as new cases of coronavirus infections in China and a strengthening U.S. dollar hit sentiment. Currencies in the region were mostly steady. The forint, however, regained some ground and interbank rates have stabilized after a sharp rise earlier this week. The forint was trading at 337.48 to the euro at 1022 GMT, up 0.2% while the Czech crown gained 0.15% and the Polish zloty was up by 0.1%. The Hungarian currency has been on a rollercoaster this week: it strengthened to 334 to the euro on Wednesday but eroded those gains quickly after the central bank indicated to local banks it was uneasy with the pace of increases in interbank rates, two market sources told Reuters. "Bubor rates are slowly coming down from their previous highs. There had been a few banks whose quotes were extremely high in the past few days, but they have also returned to the average," a dealer in Budapest said. "It seems that the words of the central bank set things straight in people's minds." A Reuters poll of analysts showed that Hungary's central bank is expected to leave interest rates unchanged when it meets next Tuesday. Investors will be watching its comments about inflation which at 4.7% ran above expectations in January. Central banks in the region are reacting to higher-than-expected inflation data. While the Czech central bank reacted with a surprise rate hike on Feb. 6, the Hungarian and Polish central banks have said they are willing to act if needed. Polish central bank head Adam Glapinski doesn't see the need to raise interest rates now despite higher inflation, but the bank would be ready to act if the price threat persisted in the long term, he said in an article in Rzeczpospolita daily on Friday. Poland's central bank targets inflation of 2.5% plus or minus one percentage point. January CPI came in at 4.4% year-on-year. Poland's benchmark interest rate has remained at a historic low of 1.5% since 2015. Regional stock market indexes fell or moved sideways, in tandem with the main European indexes which fell in the morning on renewed fears about the economic impact of the coronavirus after China reported an uptick in the number of cases. The only outlier was Budapest where shares were up 0.5%. "There is a global trend of turning away from emerging markets because of the coronavirus fears. Markets are expecting the effects to be worse in Europe than in the United States," a dealer in Budapest said. Hungarian energy company MOL was up 2.7% after it reported higher-than-expected EBITDA for the fourth quarter and raised its guidance for this year. CEE SNAPSHO AT MARKETS T 1122 CET CURRENC IES Latest Previou Daily Change s bid close change in 2020 EURCZK Czech <EURCZK 25.0500 25.0880 +0.15% +1.52% = crown => EURHUF Hungary <EURHUF 337.480 338.170 +0.20% -1.88% = forint => 0 0 EURPLN Polish <EURPLN 4.2775 4.2818 +0.10% -0.49% = zloty => EURRON Romanian <EURRON 4.8022 4.7930 -0.19% -0.29% = leu => EURHRK Croatian <EURHRK 7.4450 7.4493 +0.06% +0.01% = kuna => EURRSD Serbian <EURRSD 117.530 117.560 +0.03% +0.03% = dinar => 0 0 Note: calculated from 1800 daily CET change Latest Previou Daily Change s close change in 2020 .PX Prague 1091.68 1097.16 -0.50% -2.15% 00 .BUX Budapest 46017.1 45792.0 +0.49% -0.14% 1 7 .WIG20 Warsaw <.WIG20 2097.94 2099.88 -0.09% -2.43% > .BETI Buchares 10157.1 10144.1 +0.13% +1.80% t 4 6 .SBITO Ljubljan <.SBITO 982.02 981.75 +0.03% +6.07% P a P> .CRBEX Zagreb <.CRBEX 2022.50 2020.95 +0.08% +0.25% > .BELEX Belgrade <.BELEX 808.28 808.28 +0.00% +0.82% 15 15> .SOFIX Sofia <.SOFIX 551.31 548.03 +0.60% -2.96% > Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs Bund change in Czech spread Republic CZ2YT= 2-year <CZ2YT= 2.0920 0.2850 +273bp +29bps RR RR> s CZ5YT= 5-year <CZ5YT= 1.5770 -0.1050 +219bp -12bps RR RR> s CZ10YT <CZ10YT 1.5670 0.0000 +201bp +0bps =RR 10-year =RR> s Poland PL2YT= 2-year <PL2YT= 1.5620 -0.0050 +220bp +0bps RR RR> s PL5YT= 5-year <PL5YT= 1.7550 -0.0240 +237bp -4bps RR RR> s PL10YT <PL10YT 2.0840 -0.0320 +253bp -3bps =RR 10-year =RR> s FORWARD 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interba nk Czech <CZKFRA 2.39 2.32 2.26 2.39 Rep ><PRIBO R=> Hungary <HUFFRA 0.76 0.90 1.02 0.60 ><BUBOR => Poland <PLNFRA 1.73 1.72 1.73 1.71 ><WIBOR => Note: are for ask FRA prices quotes (Reporting by Anita Komuves, additional reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko, editing by Susan Fenton)
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