December 15 (SeeNews) - The Romanian leu closed a tad weaker against the euro on Tuesday mirroring other currencies of emerging markets due to negative news about Austria's Volksbank, dealers said.
The leu closed at 4.2500/2510 per euro versus 4.2465/2505 per euro on Monday.
The leu was relatively stable on Tuesday and was traded in the range of 4.2485-4.2520 per euro. Negative news from Europe, mainly about Austria's Volksbank, have brought negative sentiment to the emerging markets, one dealer told SeeNews.
On Tuesday, Austrian newspaper Die Presse reported that Austria's central bank and its financial market regulator have put Oesterreichische Volksbanken, the country's fourth-largest bank, on a watchlist and asked it to find a new strategy.
Currencies across the region have weakeaned following the news with the Polish zloty leading falls hitting one-month low.
Romania's central bank, BNR, set its reference exchange rate at 4.2513 lei per euro on Tuesday, compared to 4.2496 on Monday. For the U.S. dollar, the BNR set its reference exchange rate at 2.9238 lei versus Monday’s 2.9019.
On Monday Romania’s top court declared incumbent Traian Basescu winner in the run-off presidential elections held on December 6, rejecting demands of opposition Social Democrats to cancel the results of the vote.
"This is a clear step towards political normality in Romania and should have a positive short-term impact on local markets," ING Bank said in its daily note.
Basescu should name the country's next prime minister who will have to form a new government and jump-start economic reforms needed to unfreeze a 20 billion euro aid package led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF has put on hold payments under the agreement until the country will have a stable government.
Turnover on the interbank leu deposit market fell to 2.868 billion lei on Monday from 3.051 billion lei on Friday. The BNR will issue Tuesday’s turnover figures on Wednesday.
Interest rates on overnight leu deposits were up to 10.85%/11.35% on Tuesday from 9.95%/10.45% on Monday.