The euro perked up against the dollar on Wednesday as market nerves were soothed by robust demand for Italy's first bond sale since the elections.

The Italian Treasury met the higher range of its targets on Wednesday and sold a total of €6.5bn in public debt, more than the €4-6.5bn expected.

The robust demand came as a pleasant surprise following political turmoil in the wake of Italy's election results in which no party won a clear majority.

Centre-left coalition leader Pier Luigi Bersani won the lower house by less than a half a point while former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi won a blocking minority in the Senate. Both parties are against austerity measures.

Risk appetite was also boosted by German consumer confidence data for March. Figures from GfK showed confidence rose to 5.9 compared to 5.8 the month before.

Meanwhile the Eurozone´s economic confidence index for February rose to 91.1 from 89.5 in the month before.

The euro changed hands at $1.3136 versus $1.3066 on Tuesday and traded at ¥121.10 against the yen compared to ¥120.04 the previous session.

Sterling came under pressure after Bank of England (BoE) policy-maker Paul Tucker said on Tuesday that he remains open to doing more QE depending on the outlook for demand and inflation.



CJ

Related share prices