CEE MARKETS-Forint slips as market looks past Moody's ratings upgrade, focus on Czech c.bank

By Anita Komuves BUDAPEST, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The Hungarian forint extended losses to hit an eight-week low on Monday, underperforming regional peers, as it failed to get a boost after Moody's raised Hungary's sovereign credit rating late on Friday. The forint shrugged off the ratings upgrade as the other two major ratings agencies had already raised the country's credit rating and Moody's was widely expected to follow suit, two FX traders in Budapest said. "There was no news value to this, the market took this step for granted," one trader said. The forint slid 0.27% and was trading at 357.80 per euro. The currency was weakened by a firming dollar and was still under pressure from the central bank's lower-than-expected rate hike last Tuesday, the traders said. The forint has eased more than 1.3% since the central bank meeting when the bank raised rates by a smaller-than-expected 15 basis points to 1.65%. Ratings agency Moody's on Friday raised Hungary's sovereign credit rating to 'Baa2' from 'Baa3' on the economy's strong rebound from the pandemic. The Hungarian and Czech central banks both started raising rates in June to fight high inflation. While the Hungarian bank slowed the pace of its tightening cycle, the debate among Czech rate setters is shifting towards faster tightening. The Czech crown added 0.06% to trade at 25.385 versus the common currency as investors are eyeing a rate meeting on Thursday. Comments from Czech central bankers have shown support for stepping up policy tightening with a bigger than usual 50 basis-point rate increase next week. Elsewhere, the Polish zloty added 0.25% and was trading at 4.5930 to the euro, while the Romanian leu edged up 0.05% to 4.9485 per euro. Stocks in the region gained, with Prague rising 0.85% while Budpest's equities was up 0.1%. Warsaw was up 0.07%, while Bucharest gained 0.74%. CEE SNAPSHO AT MARKETS T 1100 CET CURRENC IES Latest Previous Daily Change bid close change in 2021 EURCZK= Czech 25.3850 25.4000 +0.06 +3.32% crown % EURHUF= Hungary 357.800 356.8400 -0.27% +1.38% forint 0 EURPLN= Polish 4.5930 4.6043 +0.25 -0.74% zloty % EURRON= Romania 4.9485 4.9510 +0.05 -1.69% n leu % EURHRK= Croatia 7.4930 7.4960 +0.04 +0.73% n kuna % EURRSD= Serbian 117.480 117.5800 +0.09 +0.08% dinar 0 % Note: calculated from 1800 daily CET change Latest Previous Daily Change close change in 2021 .PX Prague 1318.34 1307.240 +0.85 +28.35 0 % % .BUX Budapes 51504.8 51453.71 +0.10 +22.32 t 0 % % .WIG20 Warsaw 2299.87 2299.18 +0.03 +15.92 % % .BETI Buchare 12530.6 12440.96 +0.72 +27.79 st 5 % % .SBITOP Ljublja 1168.32 1171.20 -0.25% +29.69 na % .CRBEX Zagreb 1978.48 1975.21 +0.17 +13.75 % % .BELEX1 Belgrad <.BELEX15 800.86 801.20 -0.04% +6.98% 5 e > .SOFIX Sofia 569.04 564.03 +0.89 +27.15 % % Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs change Bund in Czech spread Republi c CZ2YT=R ps CZ5YT=R ps CZ10YT= ps Poland PL2YT=R ps PL5YT=R ps PL10YT= ps FORWARD 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interba nk Czech < 2.20 2.55 2.79 1.17 Rep PRIBOR=> Hungary < 2.24 2.38 2.51 1.77 BUBOR=> Poland < 0.49 0.79 1.06 0.24 WIBOR=> Note: are for ask prices FRA quotes ********************************************* ***************** (Editing by Rashmi Aich)