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