SINGAPORE: The euro was higher in Asian trade Monday as German chancellor Angela Merkel clinched her third term in a convincing election victory.
The euro bought $1.3525 at 0330 GMT, up from $1.3524 in New York trade late Friday. It bought 134.00 yen from 134.36 yen.
The US dollar dipped to 99.09 yen, from 99.35 yen.
Merkel's triumphant conservative Christian Democrats fell just a few seats short of their own majority with 41.5 percent of Sunday's vote, according to provisional final results.
Merkel's stunning score -- the conservatives' best result since the country's joyous reunification in 1990 -- meant that she nearly became the only chancellor to win an absolute majority since Germany's first post-war leader, Konrad Adenauer, 56 years ago.
"The election has gripped international interest as the eurozone is coming out of a recession, and continuity is what the markets favour," Kelly Teoh, market strategist at IG Markets in Singapore, said in a note.
"This was seen in the euro breaking the 1.34 resistance level."
Meanwhile, analysts said talk of the US Federal Reserve ending its massive monetary stimulus programme continues to impact on markets despite the central bank's official announcement last week that it would delay the "taper".
Speaking on Friday, two days after the announcement by the bank's key Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), senior Federal Reserve official James Bullard said the cutbacks could still come this year.
"It's possible you get some data that changes the complexion of the outlook and makes the committee comfortable with a small taper in October," he told Bloomberg television.
Bullard's comments "kept hopes alive that any surprise upside in economic data" could make the next FOMC meeting in October as keenly watched as the one last week, Desmond Chua, market analyst at CMC Markets in Singapore, said in a note.
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