It opened flat on the day, but started to lose ground around noon, despite hitting an early high of 4.5555 to the euro. High demand for euros pushed the leu down and the national currency depreciated to a low of 4.585 per euro in the second half of the session.
“This is what happens when the central bank is not present in the market. There were increased commercial orders for euros, but there was no one to sell,” said one dealer.
The leu’s reference rate weakened to 4.5694 to the euro, from a two-week high of 4.5559 per euro Monday. Against the US dollar, the leu’s indicative lost 0.4% on the day to 3.7242 units.
In the money market, overnight rates were flat at 4.8%-5.3% a year.