(RTTNews) - In early North American session on Monday, the Swiss franc showed mixed performance against other major currencies. The franc eased from more than a 5-week high against the yen, but it recovered recent losses against the pound and the euro. Meanwhile, the franc pared recent gains versus the U.S. dollar.
Switzerland's M3 money supply that includes M2 and time deposits, grew 7.1% year-on-year in May, following a 5.4% rise in April, the Swiss National Bank said in a report today.
Annual growth in M2 increased to 10.2% from 9.1% in April. The monetary aggregate M2 is the sum of the money stock M1 and savings deposits. M1, at the same time, moved up at a pace of 10.7% compared to 8.5% in the previous month.
Taking cues from the Asian stock markets gain, the European stocks traded higher today. As Investors appetite for risk was boosted by an announcement from the Chinese central bank, which said that it will put a period to its highly debated two-year peg to the U.S. currency.
On Sunday, the Chinese central bank announced that it intends to keep the yuan "basically stable" and is not planning an immediate one-off revaluation of the currency. The comments come a day after the bank announced that it had decided to reform the exchange rate and make it more flexible.
"At present there is no basis for major exchange rate fluctuations," the People's Bank of China said on its website. "The yuan will not undergo a one-off revaluation, serving market supply and demand will continue to act as a base, and adjustments will be made with reference to a basket of currencies."
The Swiss franc that fell as low as 1.6517 against the pound at 5:50 am ET reversed its direction thereafter. As of now, the franc is trading at 1.6460 against the pound, compared to previous week's closing quote of 1.6445.
The franc that hit more than a 5-week high of 82.56 against the yen at 5:00 am ET weakened thereafter. As of now, the franc is trading at 82.31 against the yen. This level is 0.5% higher than previous week's closing quote of 81.87.
From Japan, the report of convenience store sales for May likely influenced the yen.
The franc pared its recent gains against its U.S. rival during Monday's early North American session. Moving down from a high of 1.011 hit at 2:35 am ET, the franc rose to 1.1099 against the yen at 9:25 am ET. Presently, the franc is worth 1.1096 against the yen, compared to 1.1089 hit at last week's New York session close.
