EMERGING MARKETS-Rouble retreats as sanctions risk makes investors nervous
By Claire Milhench
LONDON, Aug 22 (Reuters) - The Russian rouble retreated on Wednesday as investors worried about the growing sanctions risk from the United States and Turkey's lira took another pounding, while emerging equities edged up on cautious optimism ahead of Sino-U.S. trade talks.
U.S. lawmakers have been pushing for more aggressive steps against Moscow in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea, its involvement in Syria's civil war and cyber attacks to influence U.S. elections. rouble RUB= weakened 0.7 percent after the U.S. Treasury Department imposed new sanctions over malicious cyber-related activities and North Korean oil transfers in violation of United Nations restrictions. U.S. sanctions on Russian entities, relating to the nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain, were due to kick in on Wednesday. Hammarlund, chief emerging markets strategist at SEB, also highlighted Microsoft's MSFT.O discovery of hackers linked to Russia's government seeking to launch cyber attacks on U.S. political groups ahead of U.S. midterm elections. the markets are pricing in harsher sanctions than they were before," he said, noting that the rouble had fallen even though oil prices were up almost 1 percent LCOc1 , a rare decoupling.
Russia cancelled its regular weekly auction of government bonds citing a rapid increase in financial market volatility. The halt was the first of its kind since April when there was widespread selling of Russian assets in the wake of U.S. sanctions on Rusal 0486.HK . for Russia's rouble-denominated OFZ bonds, which are popular with foreign investors, have sky-rocketed this month, with the 10-year yield RU10YT=RR currently at around 8.6 percent.
Turkey's lira TRY= , which has fallen around 37 percent year-to-date on the back of wide-ranging political and economic concerns, was down another 0.7 percent in choppy trading as a dispute with the United States over detained American pastor Andrew Brunson dragged on. President Donald Trump's national security adviser said Turkey could end the lira-battering crisis instantly by freeing Brunson. Washington has ordered tariffs on Turkish goods in retaliation for Brunson's detention.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we see another bout of volatility in the lira," said Hammarlund. "If Trump's patience runs out he could announce new sanctions on Turkey, it could be individuals or some of the banks – that would be devastating."
He noted that Turkey's central bank was still reluctant to hike interest rates, which had reduced confidence. "They haven't announced any measures to tighten fiscal policy either and those are concerns that will keep pressure on the lira," he added.
Emerging stocks remained at one-week highs, with MSCI's benchmark equities index .MSCIEF up 0.26 percent in the slipstream of a new intraday high for the S&P500 .SPX overnight.
Outperformers included South Africa .JTOPI , which gained 0.8 percent and Hong Kong .HSI , up 0.6 percent.
But Chinese mainland shares .CSI300 retreated 0.6 percent after China's central bank said it would not resort to strong stimulus to support the slowing economy. is still some optimism that Sino-U.S. trade talks taking place in Washington over the next two days will go some way towards resolving the bitter tariffs dispute between the world's two largest economies, although Trump said he did not expect much progress to be made. officials reiterated they would not use the yuan as a weapon to deal with trade frictions, with another round of tit-for-tat tariffs due to take effect on Thursday. The yuan CNY= was trading flat after four days of gains. Africa's rand ZAR=D3 slipped 0.2 percent after headline consumer inflation quickened to 5.1 percent year-on-year in July. International Monetary Fund said late on Tuesday that it would begin talks with Angola over providing financial support. Angola asked for assistance from the IMF back in April but this had not originally involved any financing. GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance 2018
Equities
Latest
Net Chg % Chg % Chg
on year
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS )
Emrg Mkt Indx .MSCIEF 1047.18
+2.87 +0.27 -9.61
Czech Rep
1074.66
+5.80 +0.54 -0.32
Poland
2277.20
-3.82 -0.17 -7.48
Hungary
36519.47 -488.19 -1.32 -7.26
Romania
8196.27 -15.57 -0.19 +5.71
Greece
702.76
-2.44 -0.35 -12.41
Russia
1070.01
-2.11 -0.20 -7.31
South Africa
.JTOPI 51596.23 +470.39 +0.92 -1.78
Turkey
.XU100 90185.99 +1451.23 +1.64 -21.80
China
2714.61 -19.22 -0.70 -17.92
India
.BSESN 38285.75
+7.00 +0.02 +12.42
Currencies
Latest
Prev
Local
Local
close currency currency
% change % change
in 2018
Czech Rep
EURCZK=
25.74
25.73 -0.02
-0.82
Poland
EURPLN=
4.29
4.29 -0.10
-2.76
Hungary
EURHUF= 323.38
323.31 -0.02
-3.97
Romania
EURRON=
4.64
4.64 +0.00
+0.81
Serbia
EURRSD= 117.90
117.93 +0.03
+0.42
Russia
RUB=
67.64
67.19 -0.66 -14.75
Kazakhstan
KZT=
362.77
361.17 -0.44
-8.26
Ukraine
27.87
27.68 -0.68
+0.99
South Africa ZAR=
14.41
14.38 -0.23 -14.26
Kenya
KES=
100.55
100.90 +0.35
+2.54
Israel
ILS=
3.64
3.64 -0.02
-4.43
Turkey
TRY=
6.09
6.05 -0.70 -37.82
China
CNY=
6.85
6.84 -0.02
-4.96
India
INR=
69.85
69.85 -0.00
-8.62
Brazil
4.05
4.05 -0.06 -18.20
Mexico
18.96
18.95 -0.04
+3.64
Debt
Index Strip Spd Chg %Rtn Index
Sov'gn Debt 11EML EMBIG 390
1
.02 7 70.39 1
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