Euro Firms Up

The euro eased against other major currencies after the European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged on Thursday, but found support from the view a rate rise would come before long. Most economists polled by Reuters had been expecting the ECB to leave interest rates unchanged, though speculation that the central bank could deliver an unexpected hike had been floating around the foreign exchanges for days. Expectations the central bank would deliver a rate rise in the coming weeks was preventing the single currency from losing much ground for now, analysts said.

"It is pretty much as we expected but it doesn't mean they are not going to be doing it in a couple of weeks," said Francesca Fornasari, economist at Lehman Brothers in London.