The euro advanced before Greek lawmakers vote on austerity measures aimed at averting the currency region’s first sovereign default. The 17-nation common currency climbed to the strongest level in a week versus the dollar, even as protests raged and workers took to the streets in a general strike. The greenback fell versus all but one of its 16 major peers tracked by Bloomberg as rising stocks cut demand for the safety of U.S. assets. “Expectations are that the vote will be passed today, albeit by a relatively close margin, and that, in the near term at least, is providing some upward momentum for the euro and riskier assets in general,” said Lee Hardman, a currency strategist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in London. “We doubt that support is likely to last.” The euro strengthened 0.2 percent to $1.4392 as of 10:26 a.m. in London, after weakening as much as 0.2 percent. It is little changed against the dollar this month and 1.7 percent stronger this quarter. The shared currency rose 0.2 percent to 116.80 yen, while the dollar was little changed against the Japanese currency at 81.16 yen. IntercontinentalExchange Inc.’s Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against the currencies of six major U.S. trading partners, dropped 0.2 percent to 74.92. ‘Patriotic Duty’ Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has called on lawmakers to “do their patriotic duty” and pass the bill, as well as a vote tomorrow to authorize implementation of the austerity plan, to ensure the debt-stricken nation can receive further rescue funds. The dollar has fallen 5.2 percent this year against a basket of nine developed-market peers, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indexes. The yen also weakened 5.2 percent, while the euro is up 2.7 percent. Demand for contracts to insure against a decline in the euro against the dollar retreated from near the most since June 2010. The euro-dollar three-month risk reversal rate was at minus 2.85 after hitting minus 3.05 on June 27. To contact the reporter on this story: Lucy Meakin in London at lmeakin1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net.

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