By Alan Charlish WARSAW, July 15 (Reuters) - Central European stocks rose and some currencies firmed on Wednesday, as hopes for a potential COVID-19 vaccine outweighed concerns over increased U.S.-China tensions. The experimental vaccine from U.S. firm Moderna Inc showed promise in an ongoing early-stage study, giving global investor sentiment a boost. "News came from the United States that there were some good tests with a vaccine... the reaction on the stock market in Asia, in the futures, in the FX was quite clear and now the investors are quite upbeat on that," said Peter Virovacz, senior economist at ING in Hungary. "This means there is some light at the end of the tunnel so that is the main reason for the strengthening of the currencies." At 0914 GMT the Hungarian forint was 0.44% stronger against the euro at 353.90 and the Czech crown was 0.23% stronger at 26.63. The Polish zloty was little changed at 4.4738 after having firmed slightly earlier in the session and the Romanian leu was flat at 4.8440 Stocks were higher across the board, tracking global peers on hopes of a vaccine. Poland's WIG 20 index was the biggest gainer, rising 0.95%. The top performer was CD Projekt which rose over 6% after chief executive Adam Kicinski told Parkiet daily he was not concerned about rival Ubisoft launching "Assasin's Creed Valhalla" two days before the planned release of the company's flagship "Cyberpunk 2077" game. "I think this a rebound from the over-reacted sell-off recently," said a Warsaw-based equity trader, adding that the Parkiet article was behind CD Projekt's gains. The Czech Finance Ministry will hold a rare auction of euro-denominated bonds for the domestic market, offering up to 300 million euros of new 7-year zero-coupon paper. "Since otherwise comparable papers of regional peers are traded with negative yields, it is entirely possible MinFin could borrow in EUR at rates close to or below zero," Komercni Banka trader Marek Lesko said in a client note. Czech yields have dropped sharply since a spike at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March. The yield on 7-year crown-denominated bonds was bid at 0.75% on Wednesday morning, down more than 1 percentage point since hitting its peak in March. Benchmark Polish ten-year yields were down 1 basis point at 1.357. "In the coming days on the domestic debt market we can expect a continuation of the sideways trend and low volatility," PKO BP analysts wrote in a note. CEE SNAPSHO AT MARKETS T 1114 CET CURRENC IES Latest Previou Daily Change s bid close change in 2020 EURCZK Czech <EURCZK 26.6300 26.6910 +0.23% -4.50% = crown => EURHUF Hungary <EURHUF 353.900 355.445 +0.44% -6.43% = forint => 0 0 EURPLN Polish <EURPLN 4.4738 4.4735 -0.01% -4.86% = zloty => EURRON Romanian <EURRON 4.8440 4.8435 -0.01% -1.15% = leu => EURHRK Croatian <EURHRK 7.5325 7.5303 -0.03% -1.16% = kuna => EURRSD Serbian <EURRSD 117.530 117.585 +0.05% +0.03% = dinar => 0 0 Note: calculated from 1800 daily CET change STOCKS Latest Previou Daily Change s close change in 2020 .PX Prague 943.16 937.840 +0.57% -15.46% 0 .BUX Budapest 35126.8 35091.7 +0.10% -23.77% 9 2 .WIG20 Warsaw <.WIG20 1788.46 1771.70 +0.95% -16.82% > .BETI Buchares 8465.31 8416.87 +0.58% -15.15% t .SBITO Ljubljan <.SBITO 868.47 867.83 +0.07% -6.20% P a P> .CRBEX Zagreb <.CRBEX 1612.02 1606.64 +0.33% -20.10% > .BELEX Belgrade <.BELEX 654.27 654.10 +0.03% -18.39% 15 15> .SOFIX Sofia <.SOFIX 442.92 441.32 +0.36% -22.04% > BONDS Yield Yield Spread Daily (bid) change vs Bund change in Czech spread Republic CZ2YT= 2-year <CZ2YT= 0.1200 -0.0160 +079bp -1bps RR RR> s CZ5YT= 5-year <CZ5YT= 0.3530 -0.0570 +101bp -4bps RR RR> s CZ10YT <CZ10YT 0.8790 0.0140 +134bp +3bps =RR 10-year =RR> s Poland PL2YT= 2-year <PL2YT= 0.1330 0.0010 +080bp +1bps RR RR> s PL5YT= 5-year <PL5YT= 0.7850 -0.0220 +144bp -1bps RR RR> s PL10YT <PL10YT 1.3570 -0.0120 +182bp +1bps =RR 10-year =RR> s FRA 3x6 6x9 9x12 3M interba nk Czech <CZKFRA 0.32 0.32 0.35 0.34 Rep ><PRIBO R=> Hungary <HUFFRA 0.67 0.66 0.65 0.70 ><BUBOR => Poland <PLNFRA 0.20 0.21 0.22 0.25 ><WIBOR => Note: FRA quotes are for ask prices ******************************************** ****************** (Reporting by Alan Charlish in Warsaw, Jason Hovet in Prague, Anita Komuves in Budapest; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)