FRANCE: The euro held gains against the dollar after Greece reached a deal on extending its bailout program, tempering speculation the nation will exit the currency region.
The 19-nation single currency erased a 0.8 percent decline on Feb. 20 after euro-area finance ministers reached an agreement that would keep bailout funds flowing to Greece for another four months. Options traders are willing to pay the most in a month to guard against losses in the euro with Greece having until the end of Monday to complete a list of policies in return for the continued funding.
“It was obviously a positive outcome given how acrimonious the talks were,” said Raiko Shareef, a markets strategist in Wellington at Bank of New Zealand Ltd. “We probably won’t see too much upside for the euro once the reform package proposed by Greece is confirmed. We’re going to get another similar sort of market volatility around June when this comes up again.”
The euro fetched $1.1376 at 10:47 a.m. in Tokyo, compared with $1.1381 on Feb, 20, when it gained 0.1 percent. It advanced as much as 0.3 percent on Monday. Against its Japanese counterpart, the shared currency was little changed at 135.48 yen, after rising 0.2 percent at the end of last week.
