Euro steadies

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TOKYO: The euro pared gains after scaling a five-month high against the dollar on Monday after the centrist candidate won the first round of the French presidential election, reducing the risk of an anti-establishment shock in the final round.

The euro was up 1.1 percent at $1.0844 by midday in Asia after earlier rising as high as $1.0940, its highest since Nov. 10. Centrist Emmanuel Macron, a pro-EU ex-banker and former economy minister, emerged as the leader of the first round of voting and qualified for a May 7 runoff alongside the second-place finisher, far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

His victory makes him the frontrunner in next month´s election, and marked a huge defeat for the two centre-right and centre-left groupings that have dominated French politics for 60 years. Against the yen, the euro jumped 2.1 percent to 119.34 , after touching a one-month high of 120.935.Short-covering on election relief lifted the single currency and triggered stop-loss orders, market participants said, though the dust settled as the euro came off its early highs.

"We saw the big moves in the early trading hours when liquidity was thin, so we might not see anything dramatic for the rest of the Asian session," said Mitsuo Imaizumi, Tokyo-based chief foreign-exchange strategist for Daiwa Securities.