ZURICH: The Swiss franc fell against the euro and the dollar on Thursday after the Bank of Japan announced aggressive easing, and ahead of a policy meeting of the European Central Bank. The yen fell across the board after the BOJ said it would double its holdings of bonds and stocks in two years. The franc rose 2 percent against the yen to trade at 100.43 by 0647 GMT compared to the New York close. But the franc fell 0.3 percent against the dollar to 0.9473 and was down 0.1 percent against the euro to 1.2154. Meanwhile, investors were turning their attention to policy meetings of the European Central Bank and Bank of England, although neither is expected to deliver any new stimulus for now. "Weak growth and inflation prospects should keep ECB rate expectations capped," said Manuel Oliveri of Credit Agricole. "This in combination with intact uncertainty about the Eurozone periphery should keep the capital flow situation muted for the time being." The safe-haven franc has largely tracked the single currency since the Swiss National Bank capped it at 1.20 per euro in September 2011 to stave off deflation and recession. The SNB publishes data on Friday on its foreign currency reserves, likely to show little change in the huge holdings it accumulated last year as it intervened to defend the 1.20 limit.

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