ZURICH: The Swiss franc inched lower against the euro and the dollar on Friday after a batch of upbeat US economic data on Thursday helped lift the greenback and supported risk sentiment. The euro benefited from hopes that Greece was close to clinching a second bailout package. "It remains to be seen whether the recovery in the euro will be sustainable," said Antje Praefcke, forex strategist at Commerzbank. "At the moment, market sentiment is positive for the euro. That is why euro-franc is a bit firmer this morning but everything depends on Greece. I would stay flat (on euro-franc) today and wait (to see) what decisions will be taken next week," she said. The franc fell 0.1 percent against the euro to trade at 1.2075 by 0744 GMT compared to the New York close. It was also trading 0.1 percent lower against the dollar at 0.9193 per dollar. Swiss economy minister Johann Schneider-Ammann said on Thursday the Swiss franc remained overvalued despite the cap at 1.20 francs per euro introduced by the Swiss National Bank in September. "The comments had remarkably little impact on EURCHF. Rightly so, we argue. FX markets concluded that it comes down to the SNB and the SNB only to set the general ramifications ... via their monetary operations," UBS economist Reto Huenerwadel said in a note. "Instead it is the overriding concerns on fiscal woes in the Eurozone that dominate trading in EURCHF and via EURUSD USDCHF accordingly," he said, adding volumes in euro-franc had fallen to very low levels. "Only time will tell whether the reduced price action in the EURCHF exchange rate bores FX investors out of the currency pair or whether they are attracted by the remarkably stable exchange rate at times of heightened political uncertainties globally."

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