By Leos Rousek
TODAY'S CALENDAR
Local/GMT
0900/0700 Hungary Apr-June unemployment rate
1530/1330 CETV 2Q earnings
Hungary's latest jobless reading and second-quarter earnings of
the region's largest television network, Central European Media
Enterprises (CETV), will be in focus Wednesday.
The Hungarian unemployment rate in the three months to end-June
may have eased, driven by temporary job contracts in the country's
public sector, from a 8% level in the previous three months, some
analysts said, without giving firm estimates.
Temporary public sector contracts, usually lasting for a month,
may have reduced applicants for unemployment benefits by up to
200,000 people, some analysts noted.
CETV, 45%-owned by Time Warner Inc. (TWX), operates leading
television networks in Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, reaching about 50 million
viewers.
Analysts expect CETV to have lowered its net loss to $6.6
million in the three months to end-June from $41 million in the
same period last year. The improvement results from a 13% annual
increase in CETV's revenue, centered on advertising sales, to $204
million in the second quarter from $180 million a year earlier.
Shares in CETV, traded on the Nasdaq and Prague Stock Exchange,
closed 1.5% on the day at 51 koruna ($2.49) in the Czech capital
Tuesday.
FOREX
EUR/CZK
Latest 0250 GMT 27.481-525
Previous close 27.485-517
%Chg +0.01
EUR/HUF
Latest 0250 GMT 310.72-1.25
Previous close 310.76-1.06
% Chg +0.02
EUR/PLN
Latest 0250 GMT 4.1491-532
Previous 2150 close 4.1483-529
% Chg +0.01
FIXED INCOME
Hungary
Tue Mon
3 yrs 3.07% 3.07%
5 yrs 3.36% 3.36%
10yrs 4.23% 4.23%
Poland
Tue Mon
3 yrs 2.37% 2.28%
5 yrs 2.76% 2.74%
10yrs 3.22% 3.22%
Czech Republic
Tue Mon
3 yrs 0.20% 0.22%
5 yrs 0.54% 0.53%
10yrs 1.40% 1.43%
STOCKS
WIG 20
2,390.99-8.94-0.37%
BUX
17,865.46-38.49-0.21%
PX
961.51+3.68+0.38%
OTHER NEWS
POLAND: Poland's economy will continue accelerating next year,
with growth reaching 4.5% annually, says PKO BP chief economist
Radoslaw Bodys, adding higher-than-expected growth will be driven
by fast growth in private consumption and broad infrastructure
investments tied with EU funds.
UKRAINE: The European Union and the U.S., after much agonizing,
adopted broad economic sanctions against Russia on Tuesday to
punish Moscow's unbending stance in the Ukraine conflict.
The question for the West now is whether the move will make
Russian President Vladimir Putin more cooperative or prompt him to
dig in.
HUNGARY: Hungary's economy minister Tuesday said the banking
system was stable and he doesn't expect major banks to leave the
country.
In an interview on commercial radio Inforadio, Mihaly Varga said
the capital adequacy ratio of the Hungarian banking system is
ample, and many banks have already prepared for state plans to
convert foreign currency loans in to forints, by provisioning.
-Veronika Gulyas in Budapest contributed to this article.
Write to Leos Rousek at leos.rousek@wsj.com
Go to http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope for the new WSJ and
Dow Jones blog on Central and Eastern Europe, covering business,
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