By Susan Mathew Nov 16 (Reuters) – Emerging market currencies were mixed on Wednesday, with central European units outperforming after fears subsided that a missile that hit Poland near the border with Ukraine had originated from Russia. Poland’s zloty rallied 0.8%, recovering almost all its losses over the last two sessions, but stocks fell more than 1%. Other central European currencies gained between 0.1% and 0.7% against a stronger euro, with Hungary’s forint on course for its best session in three weeks. Russia’s rouble was at around 60 per euro. “It could have been much worse but investors appear to have come to the view that it was a situation that would be quickly de-escalated,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst, UK & EMEA at OANDA. Against a dollar that weakened as tensions eased, the South African rand and the Mexican peso firmed around 0.3% each. Most other emerging market currencies fell. Brazil’s real was volatile, last down 0.8%, while currencies of Chile and Colombia slid around 1% each during the session. Citi strategists await Brazil’s President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s fiscal easing plan, which local reports say could be revealed later in the day. The market will focus on the size of the waiver of the spending cap, the duration and the funding. Brazil’s battle against inflation is not over with the country at serious risk of recession if it does not adopt a clear fiscal anchor, central bank chief Roberto Campos Neto and former Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said on Tuesday. The space for applying “unorthodox policies” in Brazil is limited and the market will punish unusual economic experiments, the chief economist of Swiss bank UBS, Paul Donovan, said in an interview with newspaper Valor Econômico published on Wednesday. The mood on Wall Street soured over a bleak sales outlook from Target, giving most Latin American stocks their cue. Brazil’s Bovespa led declines, down 1.3%. MSCI’s index of emerging market stocks was down 0.7%. Argentina’s main index, outperformed, while the currency slipped again. Data on Tuesday had shown the country’s monthly inflation at 6.3% in October, while inflation in the 12 months through October hit 88%, overtaking Turkey. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies: Stock indexes Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 954.09 -0.68 MSCI LatAm 2221.38 -1.13 Brazil Bovespa 111666.56 -1.32 Mexico IPC 51490.95 -0.32 Chile IPSA 5233.50 -0.11 Argentina MerVal 156034.24 0.564 Colombia COLCAP 1286.92 0.13 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 5.3417 -0.75 Mexico peso 19.3176 0.19 Chile peso 899.1 -1.49 Colombia peso 4899.6 -1.16 Peru sol 3.828 -0.44 Argentina peso 162.4500 -0.20 (interbank) (Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; editing by Barbara Lewis)
