* Emerging stocks hit one-week high on U.S. comments
* Turkish stocks hit 8-mth highs ahead of rate meeting
* Russia’s Eurobond issue could be $5-7 bln
By Philip Baillie
LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) – Emerging stocks rose to a
one-week high on Tuesday, lifted with global equities after
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke defended the U.S. central
bank’s loose monetary policy, with investors eyeing interest
rate decisions in Hungary and Turkey.
World stocks hit a 2012 high and other risky assets climbed
following Bernanke’s comments that interest rates needed to stay
low to stimulate growth and combat unemployment in the world’s
largest economy.
Stronger data from Germany released on Monday also
emboldened investors, making riskier emerging markets more
attractive, with MSCI’s benchmark emerging equities index
gaining 1.24 percent.
“The markets have been quite boosted by Bernanke and the Ifo
was not too bad yesterday but we are still in ranges … there
is a little bit of improvement from last week but nothing very
strong,” said Gaelle Blanchard, emerging markets strategist at
SocGen.
“We are still in the range and it’s the end of the quarter,
I am not sure we are going to go out of the range. The market is
also waiting for official Chinese PMI data on Sunday, it’s being
very data-sensitive.”
Continued…
