* Stocks stay at 11-week highs; Greece deal eyed
* Forint rally pauses, rand fails to capitalise on equity
gains
* Robust demand for Polish, Romanian debt sales
By Alessandra Prentice
LONDON, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Emerging stocks hovered at
an 11-week high on Friday as signs that Greece would reach an
agreement with its private creditors and avoid a chaotic default
left investors happy with their exposure to riskier assets,
while central European currencies eased off recent peaks.
The Hungarian forint dipped after touching a month high in
the previous session while robust oil prices kept Russia’s
shares aloft for the fifth session in a row.
Early week gains sparked off by better-than-expected growth
figures from China moderated as data showed Chinese factory
output slowing at the start of the year, but signs of
stabilisation in the debt-burdened euro zone kept sentiment
benign.
“Markets are taking a bit of a breather as we saw a very
strong directional market for most the week,” said Luis Costa,
head of CEEMEA FX and debt strategy at Citi.
“We could be trading with a positive tone in many asset
classes until around mid-February but there are headwinds out
there,” he said, citing the potential for negative developments
in Greece to dampen investor sentiment.
Continued…
