 Central European currencieswere stable and stocks rose on Monday with Budapestoutperforming the region as the gradual lifting of lockdownmeasures boosted investor sentiment globally. Regional currencies gained less than 0.1 versus the euro onMonday. The zloty, the crown and the forint have all sufferedsince the coronavirus pandemic brought economic activity to avirtual halt. Analysts expect preliminary first-quarter gross domesticproduct data, to be published this week in the region, to beclosely eyed by investors in the regions markets for cluesabout the extent of economic damage caused by the coronavirusoutbreak. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that economies inthe region will contract by 3 to 7 this year due to thepandemic. For an interactive graphic on CEE economicdevelopments: Domestic readings, if they surprise negatively... mayincrease expectations for further fiscal and monetary assistancein Poland, and thus put pressure on the zloty, PKO Bank wrotein a note. Everyone is expecting macro data to be so bad these daysthat if data end up being just slightly better than expected,that will have a positive effect on markets, an FX trader inBudapest said. The fact that the central bank is closely managing interestrates in Hungary is also helping the forint, he added. Helped by policy tightening by Hungarys previouslyultra-dovish central bank, the forint has outperformed its peersand regained a significant share of its losses since April 1,when it hit a record low near 370 to the euro. The forint was trading at 349.25 to the euro onMonday, up 0.03 on the day. The forint was also helped last week by the slow start ofthe Hungarian central banks QE program, where the NBH bought 50billion forints 155.35 million worth of government bonds,half the amount it had set as a maximum of weekly purchases. Central bank Governor Gyorgy Matolcsy said in an interviewon Sunday that the NBH will use the bond-buying scheme only tothe extent necessary. According to a Reuters poll, economists expect most centralEuropean currencies to rebound or remain stable over the next 12months. The Hungarian forint is forecast to be stable while thePolish zloty is expected to gain 3.3 against the euro. Analysts projected that the Czech crown would gain around5.0 against the euro. Estimates for the poll were collectedbefore the Czech central bank delivered a bigger-than-expected75-basis-point rate cut last Thursday. The crown fell after the cut last week, the third in aseries of big reductions. The crown was trading at27.220 versus the euro on Monday, up 0.06 on the day. Stocks rose on Monday. Pragues blue-chip index gained1 while both Warsaw and Bucharest were up0.7. Budapest equities were up 2.13 and leading gains in theregion as pharma company Richter outperformed thewider market. Richters shares were up 2.46 by 0909 GMT as JPMorgan raised its target price and changed its recommendation tooverweight from neutral. The company reported an above-forecastfirst-quarter profit on Friday. CEE SNAPSHOT AT MARKETS 0925 CET CURRENCIE S Latest Previous Daily Change bid close change in 2020 Czech 27.2200 27.2360 0.06 -6.57 crown Hungary 349.2500 349.3700 0.03 -5.18 forint Polish 4.5460 4.5499 0.09 -6.37 zloty Romanian 4.8270 4.8280 0.02 -0.80 leu Croatian 7.5548 7.5558 0.01 -1.45 kuna Serbian 117.4700 117.6100 0.12 0.09 dinar Note: calculated from 1800 CET daily change Latest Previous Daily Change close change in 2020 Prague 890.03 881.3400 0.99 -20.22 Budapest 35535.64 34796.13 2.13 -22.89 Warsaw 1617.84 1606.50 0.71 -24.75 Bucharest 8438.24 8381.20 0.68 -15.43 Ljubljana 801.10 801.10 0.00 -13.48 Zagreb 1542.74 1542.74 0.00 -23.53 Belgrade .BELEX15 661.60 661.60 0.00 -17.47 Sofia 448.82 448.82 0.00 -21.00 Yield Yield Spread Daily bid change vs Bund change in Czech spread Republic 2-year 5-year 10-year Poland 2-year 5-year 10-year FORWARD 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interban k Czech Rep 0.26 0.27 0.29 0.87 PRIBOR Hungary 1.13 1.08 1.05 1.08 BUBOR Poland 0.29 0.33 0.36 0.68 WIBOR Note: FRA are for ask prices quotes Additional reporting by Alan Charlish in Warsaw, editing by Larry King 