The euro gained for the first time in five days against the dollar as Italy sold all the debt it planned at an auction of bills, with the securities attracting higher demand from investors. Europe’s common currency snapped three days of declines versus its Japanese counterpart after the Italian sale of 8 billion euros ($9.9 billion) of Treasury bills. It fell earlier amid reports quoting European Central Bank Governing Council member Luc Coene as saying bond purchases won’t solve Spain’s and Italy’s difficulties. New Zealand (ANZ)’s dollar fell against the greenback after Finance Minister Bill English said the country would prefer a weaker currency. “The euro moved up on the back of the Italian auction,� said Neil Jones, head of European hedge-fund sales at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. in London. “Clearly the market looked at that as some confidence coming back into the periphery.� The euro gained 0.5 percent to $1.2352 at 7:44 a.m. in New York, after earlier falling by 0.2 percent. It jumped 0.5 percent to 96.67 yen after slipping 1.1 percent last week. The yen was little changed at 78.27 per dollar. Italy’s Treasury, based in Rome, sold the 364-day bills at 2.767 percent, up from 2.697 percent at the last sale of similar-maturity debt on July 12. Investors bid 1.69 times the amount of bills sold, up from 1.55 times last month. Spanish and Italian bonds rose and the euro gained earlier this month after ECB President Mario Draghi said the Frankfurt- based central bank may buy government debt in conjunction with euro-area bailout funds. The ECB later said it may take such measures only if troubled nations commit to improving their economies and fiscal positions. The ECB is divided on what conditions should be assigned and not on the overall strategy for when to intervene, De Tijd and L’Echo newspapers cited Coene as saying. To contact the reporters on this story: Lukanyo Mnyanda in Edinburgh at lmnyanda@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net

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