PHOTO
By Sujata Rao
LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Emerging stocks hit new one-year highs on Friday and headed for their fifth straight week of gains, as below-forecast Chinese data stirred expectations that Beijing would add to the stimulus largesse of developed countries' central banks.
MSCI's emerging equity index was lifted by Hong Kong shares surging to nine-month highs while mainland Chinese markets firmed 1.6-1.9 percent after retail sales, industrial output and investment data all underwhelmed, leading to bets on monetary policy easing in the world's No. 2 economy.
The data also pushed Chinese 10-year treasury yields to 6-1/2-year lows .
An overnight oil price jump and a record Wall Street close offered more tailwinds to the MSCI index which has risen for five weeks straight and is up almost 3 percent so far this week.
"The positive momentum for emerging markets is premised on positive expectations regarding more stimulus in G10 - overall that's the theme that supports emerging markets and the appetite for risky assets," said Roxanna Hulea, a strategist at Societe Generale.
While U.S. data has been relatively firm and retail sales data is awaited later in the day, most analysts do not expect significant policy tightening there even in 2017.
As a result, big gains have also come on emerging dollar bonds where yield spreads over Treasuries have fallen about 10 basis points this week to a 13-month low .
However the bond rally has bypassed Ukraine this week amid renewed tensions with Russia over Crimea, which the Kremlin annexed in 2014. Russia's navy has announced war games in the Black Sea, a day after President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of trying to provoke a conflict in the region.
Ukraine denies the allegations, saying the build-up of Russian military on its border could reflect "very bad intentions".
The country's restructured dollar bonds were marked slightly lower after falling 1-1.5 cents on Thursday while Warsaw-listed Ukrainian shares fell 2.5 percent on Thursday and were set to end a four-week winning streak .
Ukraine's hryvnia currency weakened 0.6 percent to a seven week low aginst the dollar .
Russia's rouble
RUB=
slipped half a percent against the dollar, though stocks rose almost 1 percent in line with oil, and while credit default swaps inched off mid-2014 highs hit earlier in the week, Hulea said she did not expect major market losses.
"For more than a year now Russia has been a consensus trade in terms of people being bullish ... So we need to see something really happening rather than a brewing noise in the background, before we see a reversal in appetite towards Russia," she added.
In central Europe, currencies were firm, with the Polish zloty hovering near four-month highs against the euro and the Hungarian forint at 3-1/2 month highs .
Data showed robust economic growth across the region in the second quarter with Hungary accelerating to 2.6 percent and Romania to 6 percent, while Poland grew 3.1 percent.
South African markets were weaker as investors pulled the rand and local bonds back from multi-month highs in anticipation of stronger U.S. data later in the day
ZAR=
.
Earlier, Thai stocks were closed and did not react to bomb blasts in several resort towns but the baht pulled back 0.3 percent from five-month highs.
Emerging Markets Prices from Reuters Equities Latest Net Chg % Chg % Chg
on year
Morgan Stanley Emrg Mkt Indx 908.67 +1.07 +0.12 +14.42
Czech Rep 866.79 +5.59 +0.65 -9.36
Poland 1862.47 -2.23 -0.12 +0.18
Hungary 27735.73 +211.32 +0.77 +15.95
Romania 6829.27 -5.34 -0.08 -2.50
Greece 573.46 +1.13 +0.20 -9.17
Russia 956.24 +3.43 +0.36 +26.31
South Africa 45839.68 +634.04 +1.40 +0.09
Turkey 78605.46 -428.11 -0.54 +9.59
China 3051.02 +48.38 +1.61 -13.79
India 28141.12 +281.52 +1.01 +7.75
Currencies Latest Prev Local Local
close currency currency
% change % change
in 2016
Czech Rep 26.98 27.01 +0.10 +0.05
Poland 4.26 4.26 -0.12 -0.10
Hungary 310.09 309.75 -0.11 +1.47
Romania 4.46 4.46 -0.02 +1.39
Serbia 123.15 123.18 +0.02 -1.36
Russia 64.64 64.30 -0.52 +12.85
Kazakhstan 344.46 346.30 +0.53 -1.15
Ukraine 25.05 24.90 -0.60 -4.38
South Africa 13.40 13.40 +0.00 +15.39
Kenya 101.35 101.38 +0.03 +0.84
Israel 3.81 3.81 -0.03 +2.03
Turkey 2.96 2.96 -0.05 -1.39
China 6.64 6.63 -0.26 -2.29
India 66.87 66.74 -0.19 -1.00
Brazil 3.14 3.14 +0.16 +26.11
Mexico 18.24 18.22 -0.11 -5.89
Debt Index Strip Spd Chg %Rtn Index
Sov'gn Debt EMBIG 368 3 .01 7 64.91 1
(Additional reporting by Claire Milhench; Editing by Toby Chopra) ((sujata.rao@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 6176 sujata.rao.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Emerging stocks hit new one-year highs on Friday and headed for their fifth straight week of gains, as below-forecast Chinese data stirred expectations that Beijing would add to the stimulus largesse of developed countries' central banks.
MSCI's emerging equity index
The data also pushed Chinese 10-year treasury yields to 6-1/2-year lows
An overnight oil price jump and a record Wall Street close offered more tailwinds to the MSCI index which has risen for five weeks straight and is up almost 3 percent so far this week.
"The positive momentum for emerging markets is premised on positive expectations regarding more stimulus in G10 - overall that's the theme that supports emerging markets and the appetite for risky assets," said Roxanna Hulea, a strategist at Societe Generale.
While U.S. data has been relatively firm and retail sales data is awaited later in the day, most analysts do not expect significant policy tightening there even in 2017.
As a result, big gains have also come on emerging dollar bonds where yield spreads over Treasuries have fallen about 10 basis points this week to a 13-month low
However the bond rally has bypassed Ukraine this week amid renewed tensions with Russia over Crimea, which the Kremlin annexed in 2014. Russia's navy has announced war games in the Black Sea, a day after President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of trying to provoke a conflict in the region.
Ukraine denies the allegations, saying the build-up of Russian military on its border could reflect "very bad intentions".
The country's restructured dollar bonds were marked slightly lower after falling 1-1.5 cents on Thursday while Warsaw-listed Ukrainian shares fell 2.5 percent on Thursday and were set to end a four-week winning streak
Ukraine's hryvnia currency weakened 0.6 percent to a seven week low aginst the dollar
Russia's rouble
"For more than a year now Russia has been a consensus trade in terms of people being bullish ... So we need to see something really happening rather than a brewing noise in the background, before we see a reversal in appetite towards Russia," she added.
In central Europe, currencies were firm, with the Polish zloty hovering near four-month highs against the euro
Data showed robust economic growth across the region in the second quarter with Hungary accelerating to 2.6 percent and Romania to 6 percent, while Poland grew 3.1 percent.
South African markets were weaker as investors pulled the rand and local bonds back from multi-month highs in anticipation of stronger U.S. data later in the day
Earlier, Thai stocks were closed and did not react to bomb blasts in several resort towns but the baht
Emerging Markets Prices from Reuters Equities Latest Net Chg % Chg % Chg
on year
Morgan Stanley Emrg Mkt Indx
Czech Rep
Poland
Hungary
Romania
Greece
Russia
South Africa
Turkey
China
India
Currencies Latest Prev Local Local
close currency currency
% change % change
in 2016
Czech Rep
Poland
Hungary
Romania
Serbia
Russia
Kazakhstan
Ukraine
South Africa
Kenya
Israel
Turkey
China
India
Brazil
Mexico
Debt Index Strip Spd Chg %Rtn Index
Sov'gn Debt
(Additional reporting by Claire Milhench; Editing by Toby Chopra) ((sujata.rao@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 6176 sujata.rao.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))