Dec 22 (Reuters) – Emerging markets stocks receded on Friday and were set for a weekly decline, while currencies edged up, as a rally prompted by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s dovish narrative somewhat abated ahead of the Christmas holidays.
The MSCI’s gauge of emerging market stocks .MSCIEF fell 0.5% and was on track for a weekly loss of 0.8%, while a basket of currencies .MIEM00000CUS was up 0.2% against the dollar by 0931 GMT.
The benchmark stocks and currencies index had gained 2.7% and 0.7% respectively in the previous week as the Fed hinted at prospects of likely rate-cuts for next year.
“The shift from the Fed, it’s really reopened the possibility of kind of positive returns” said James Wilson, EM sovereign debt strategist at ING.
“Overall, for now, many asset classes are kind of picking up on the positivity and it would seem pretty much everything rally all round across (emerging market) equities, fixed income and more kind of risk-sensitive assets, and bonds as well,” added Wilson.
However, risk sentiment dipped in the last full-trading week of the year after pushback on interest rate cuts from some Fed policymakers, while investors awaited the U.S. core personal consumption expenditure (PCE) data, as they look for more cues on the rate outlook.
In Asia, Hong Kong shares .HIS slid 1.7% after China unveiled new draft rules for online video games, while the Shanghai Composite index .SSEC slipped 0.1% after rising earlier in the session, as five of China’s largest state banks lowered interest rates on some deposits.
Meanwhile, in Central Europe, the Czech crown EURCZK= inched up 0.1% against the euro a day after the Czech National Bank cut interest rates by 25 basis points (bps), while the Polish zloty EURPLN= was steady ahead of unemployment data.
Elsewhere, Turkery’s lira TYRTOM=D3 hit fresh lows of 29.2155 per dollar, while the country’s central bank lifted its key interest rate by 250 bps to 42.5% on Thursday as expected.
The number of foreign visitors arriving in Turkey in November dipped 1.02% from a year earlier to 2.53 million, data showed.
In South America, Argentine sovereign debt rose and stocks dipped after early gains on Thursday, as market participants cautiously welcomed an emergency presidential decree ending limits on exports and taking other steps to deregulate an ailing economy.
(Reporting by Siddarth S in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)
