Wires

EMERGING MARKETS-Turkish, S.Africa stocks rise; Czech crown falls

LONDON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Turkish stocks hit 17-month highson Thursday, shrugging off an escalating conflict with Syria asdata showed an improving current account picture while the Czechcrown lost 0.3 percent after comments by the central bankgovernor.

South African assets gained as more truckers returned towork after weeks of strikes.

Turkish stocks jumped, the liragained 0.3percent and bond yields slipped 20 basis points

after

data showed the current account deficit narrowing significantly,stoking expectations of a rating upgrade.

.

"The ratings agencies have argued that an upgrade depends onevidence of an improving (current account deficit) position -well now it's improving," said Timothy Ash, head of emergingmarkets research at Standard Bank.

The Czech crown fell 0.25 percent

after centralbank governor Miroslav Singer was quoted as saying the bank isready to intervene to weaken the currency if it feels there is arisk of long-term deflation pressure

.

The comments come a day after dovish remarks from Poland'sprime minister and central bankers hit the zloty.

"We are seeing more and more verbal intervention. What'sinteresting is that you have more emerging currencies gettingpolluted by these kinds of comments," said Guillaume Salomon,emerging market strategist at Societe Generale, citing thezloty, rand and the crown as examples.

South African stocksrose a quarter of a percentand the rand jumped 1.15 percent to the dollar

, liftingit to a three-day high as hopes grew that the strikes could soonend.

The rand hit a 3-1/2 year low hit earlier this week on fearsthe labour unrest would seriously derail growth and investment.

Broader emerging markets were flat

weighed down bya 0.8 percent loss in Chinaand continued worries overSpain which was downgraded by S&P to BBB-, a notch above junk.

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For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance 2012, see

For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging Europe performance 2012, see

For GRAPHIC on MSCI frontier index performance 2012, see

For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, see

For TURKISH market report, see

For RUSSIAN market report, see

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(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; editing by Patrick Graham)

((shadia.nasralla@thomsonreuters.com)(+44)(0)(207 5425213)(Reuters Messenger:shadia.nasralla.reuters.com@reuters.net))

((Emerging Markets Prices from Reuters

Equities Latest Net Chg % Chg % Chgon yearMorgan StanleyEmrg Mkt Indx

992.95 +0.86 +0.09 +8.35

Poland

2399.39 +7.06 +0.30 +11.89

Hungary

19068.62 +119.88 +0.63 +12.34

Romania

4744.33 -65.00 -1.35 +9.39

Russia

1484.55 +0.71 +0.05 +3.51

South Africa

32126.52 +118.38 +0.37 +12.84Turkey69014.08 +556.50 +0.81 +34.62China2102.87 -17.07 -0.81 -4.39India18801.94 +170.84 +0.92 +21.66Currencies Latest Prev Local Localclose currency currency% change % changein 2012Czech Rep24.95 24.91 -0.18 +2.37Poland4.10 4.09 -0.02 +9.01Hungary282.25 282.58 +0.12 +11.46Romania4.57 4.56 -0.13 -5.37Serbia114.10 113.86 -0.21 -6.27Russia31.12 31.11 -0.03 +3.44

Kazakhstan

150.49 150.53 +0.03 -1.35Ukraine8.13 8.13 +0.00 -1.67

South Africa

8.67 8.73 +0.68 -6.95Kenya85.15 85.20 +0.06 -0.23Israel3.86 3.86 +0.09 -1.22Turkey1.81 1.82 +0.48 +4.15China6.28 6.28 +0.11 +0.28India52.76 53.01 +0.48 +0.48Brazil2.04 2.04 -0.01 -8.79Mexico12.92 12.97 +0.40 +7.97Debt Index Strip Spd Chg %Rtn IndexSov'gn DebtEMBI+ 273 -1 0.03 692.23

Currency percent change calculated from the daily U.S.

close at 2130 GMT.))Keywords: MARKETS EMERGING