Leu Opens Weaker On Commercial Demand For Euro

05.02.2011 By Andrei Circhelan

The Romanian leu weakened against the euro in early trade Monday, on higher commercial demand for hard currency in the market, but volumes were low.

The leu opened at 4.076/4.079 to the euro, lower than 4.0755/4.0765 to the euro at closing Friday.

Within the first hour, the leu hit an early low at 4.087/4.089 against the euro, following higher demand for foreign currency, but then it returned to 4.0835/4.085 against the euro at around GMT0715.

The Romanian central bank set Friday the leu's reference at 4.0744 to the euro, slightly stronger on the day. The leu continued a four-day rally against the US dollar and hit a new high at 2.7408 units, the strongest rate since December 2008.

On the money market early Monday, overnight rates dropped to 4.9%-5.4% per year, from 5.1%-5.6% per year on Friday.