ZURICH: The Swiss franc hovered off a one-month high against the dollar on Tuesday, tracking the euro, after international lenders clinched a deal on new debt targets for near-bankrupt Greece.
The franc has largely shadowed the euro since the Swiss National Bank capped it at 1.20 to the single currency more than a year ago after a surge in the franc's value threatened to tip the country into recession.
Worries about Greece's unsustainable debt load have weighed on the euro and the deal by international lenders to cut Greece's debt to 124 percent of gross domestic product by 2020 lifted the single currency to a one-month high against the dollar.
"This is likely to ease a lot of the uncertainty surrounding the eurozone at the moment, however the positive reaction in the markets will be limited," said Craig Erlam, analyst at Alpari.
Erlam said investors' attention would now shift across the Atlantic to discussions on the US fiscal cliff, which would trigger automatic budget cuts and threaten any global economic recovery.
In Switzerland, data on Monday showed that amount of cash parked by commercial banks at the SNB rose to the highest level since early September as talks between Greece's international lenders dragged on over the past few weeks.
The level of sight deposits is an indication of how hard the SNB is having to work to defend its cap on the franc and the increase mirrors increased nervousness as the safe-haven currency has moved closer to the 1.20 limit.
The franc fell 0.1 percent against the euro compared to the New York close to 1.2043 by 0817 GMT. Against the dollar the franc was steady at 0.9275 after earlier touching a one-month high around 0.9251.
Data due on Thursday will show how Switzerland's economy fared in the third quarter after it posted a surprise contraction in the second.
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