BUDAPEST, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Hungary"s forint firmed to an 8-week high versus the euro on Thursday even as the National Bank of Hungary unexpectedly left its one-week deposit rate unchanged, halting a series of weekly rate hikes. The forint initially dropped over half a percent to 363.30 after the central bank announced the one-week rate would remain unchanged at 4%, but it quickly regained ground. The currency was up 0.12% on the day, trading at 360.90 per euro, after hitting an 8-week high of 360.54. read more "This step does not look good at first sight as it goes against the communication of the central bank a little bit, although the forint"s strength could justify it," an FX trader in Budapest said. "But the most important question is how close to the one-week deposit rate the central bank will raise the base rate at its January 25 monthly rate meeting." The forint has gained over 2% since the start of the year, supported by higher central bank rates, traders have said. The NBH uses the one-week rate to tackle short-term market volatility and it is above the base rate of 2.4%. Hungarian government bond yields did not immediately move after the decision as investors were waiting to see how the forint would react, a fixed-income trader said. The yield on the 10-year bond was about 4.65%. Elsewhere, the Czech crown firmed 0.12% to 24.559 versus the common currency. Stocks in the CEE region weakened, tracking European equities that sank over 1% as hawkish signals from the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting minutes dented global investor sentiment. read more Bucharest (.BETI) led losses as it shed 1%. Budapest (.BUX) was 0.9% lower while Prague (.PX) eased 0.5%. Markets in Warsaw were closed for a national holiday. CEE MARKETS SNAPSHOT AT 1043 CET CURRENCIES Latest Previous Daily Change bid close change in 2022 EURCZK= Czech crown 24.5590 24.5890 +0.12% +1.27% EURHUF= Hungary forint 360.9000 361.3500 +0.12% +2.35% EURPLN= Polish zloty 4.5740 4.5670 -0.15% +0.37% EURRON= Romanian leu 4.9440 4.9459 +0.04% +0.08% EURHRK= Croatian kuna 7.5200 7.5215 +0.02% -0.03% EURRSD= Serbian dinar 117.5400 117.5900 +0.04% +0.03% Note: daily change calculated from 1800 CET Latest Previous Daily Change close change in 2022 .PX Prague (.PX) 1419.46 1427.1600 -0.54% .BUX Budapest (.BUX) 51625.89 52097.34 -0.90% +1.78% .WIG20 Warsaw (.WIG20) 2310.97 2310.97 +0.00% +1.94% .BETI Bucharest (.BETI) 13053.16 13187.28 -1.02% -0.06% .SBITOP Ljubljana (.SBITOP) 1296.35 1301.22 -0.37% +3.26% .CRBEX Zagreb (.CRBEX) 2131.84 2131.84 +0.00% +2.52% .BELEX15 Belgrade (.BELEX15) 825.75 825.18 +0.07% +0.61% .SOFIX Sofia (.SOFIX) 643.70 643.67 +0.00% +1.26% Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs Bund change in Czech Republic spread CZ2YT=RR 2-year 3.8360 0.1140 +444bps +10bps CZ5YT=RR 5-year 3.4770 0.0800 +389bps +6bps CZ10YT=RR 10-year 3.0890 0.0670 +315bps +4bps Poland PL2YT=RR 2-year 3.5230 -0.0270 +413bps -4bps PL5YT=RR 5-year 3.9990 0.0000 +441bps -2bps PL10YT=RR 10-year 3.9040 0.0000 +396bps -3bps FORWARD 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interbank Czech Rep 5.07 5.02 4.78 4.08 Hungary 5.35 5.56 5.63 4.26 Poland 4.01 4.27 4.22 2.62 Note: FRA quotes are for ask prices **************************************************************