BUDAPEST: The forint was trading at 309.36 to the euro late Thursday on the interbank forex market, slightly down from 309.10 late Wednesday. At 309.26 to the euro early Thursday, the forint moved between 308.25 and 309.54, after a more than three-month low at 309.94 Wednesday intraday.
While US rate hike expectations, continuing ups and downs in the Greek saga, and falling euro zone sovereign yields kept the euro in bay versus the dollar, the forint tread water, underpinned by an unexpectedly strong sale of longer term Hungarian government bonds on Thursday. Investors may have shifted into Hungaryʼs debt from Polish paper after Polandʼs presidential election result on Sunday unnerved financial markets, analysts said.
However, the Hungarian currency could not break out of its recent weak range given the National Bank of Hungaryʼs (MNB) solid easing bias for the foreseeable future, and as fresh data on investment growth falling in the first quarter confirmed expectations for both foreign direct investment in manufacturing and EU funds in general to taper off.
