November 25 (SeeNews) - The Romanian leu closed stronger versus the euro on Wednesday, as the market is waiting for the run-off vote for president on December 6, dealers said.
The leu ended at 4.2605/2620 per euro, compared to 4.2650/2690 per euro on Tuesday.
The leu appreciated in the first half of the trading session to an intraday high of 4.2550 per euro and lost some ground later, one dealer told SeeNews. "I think the appreciation is due to the forthcoming run-off vote for president."
Incumbent centrist Traian Basescu, leading with a thin margin after the first round of Romania's presidential elections held on November 22, will face Mircea Geoana, leader of the opposition Social Democrat Party, in a run-off vote. The winner in the run-off, to be held on December 6, will name the country's next prime minister who will have to restart key reforms of the economy and the justice system in order to win back the trust of international lenders, a key condition for the release of the next installments of a 20-billion euro bailout package led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
"Further euro losses are to be expected provided the mood remains supportive and the central bank maintains its presence in the market. The latter is likely given that Finance Ministry has scheduled a euro-denominated bond auction tomorrow and the central bank probably sells the amount in the spot market. This also means we may see stronger leu vs euro in the days ahead as well," ING Bank said in a daily note.
Romania’s central bank, BNR, set its reference exchange rate at 4.2597 lei per euro on Wednesday, compared to 4.2648 on Tuesday. For the U.S. dollar, the BNR set its reference exchange rate at 2.8355 lei versus Tuesday’s 2.8525.
Turnover on the interbank leu deposit market fell to 2.344 billion lei on Tuesday from 3.174 billion lei on Monday. The BNR will issue Wednesday’s turnover figures on Thursday.
Interest rates on overnight leu deposits fell to 8.53%/9.03% on Wednesday from 8.96%/9.46% on Tuesday.