ZURICH: The Swiss franc ticked up a touch against the greenback on Thursday, in tandem with the euro, as market players hoped the European Central Bank would eventually take steps to bring down borrowing costs in Italy and Spain.
The franc has been trading in tandem with the euro since the Swiss National Bank set a cap of 1.20 on the safe-haven unit last September. Investors anxious about the euro zone's debt crisis had sought a secure harbour, pushing the franc up almost 20 percent in just a few months.
With southern European economies already in recession and momentum in France and Germany showing signs of losing pace, investors have been looking to the ECB for action to help eased the bloc's debt crisis.
"Markets broadly remain relatively range-bound given the paucity of market-moving economic data and a lack of further details on the ECB's bond-buying proposals," economists at Barclays said.
European equities were set to keep their brisk two-week rally alive on Thursday, as data showing a drop in China's consumer inflation fuelled expectation of further policy easing.
"There are mixed drivers in current trade," said Informa Global Markets analyst Tony Nyman.
Versus the dollar, weakness in the euro - and therefore the franc - was capped by prospect the European Central Bank might act to bring down high Spanish and Italian borrowing costs next month, Nyman said.
"More range trading likely," Nyman said.
The franc was up 0.1 percent against the dollar to trade at 0.9701 by 0654 GMT compared to the New York close.
The franc was flat against the euro to trade at 1.2012.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.