* Euro steady vs dollar, flat at $1.4866 <EUR=>
* Pound up as BoE ups QE by 25 bln stg, low end of forecasts
* ECB holds rates steady, awaits Trichet
(Recasts, adds quotes, updates prices)
By Tamawa Desai
LONDON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The euro held steady on Thursday
as the European Central Bank kept interest rates on hold, while
the pound rose versus the greenback as the UK central bank
raised its asset buying but less than some expected.
The ECB kept interest rates at a record low 1.0 percent.
Markets now await ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet's news
conference at 1330 GMT on any clues for a withdrawal of the
central bank's easing measures. []
By 1259 GMT, the euro was flat on the day against the dollar
at $1.4867, little changed from before the ECB's decision, which
was widely expected. The euro had pared earlier losses against
the dollar after hitting a session low of $1.4810.
Sterling jumped more than a full cent to hit a two-week high
against the dollar after the Bank of England expanded its
asset-buying scheme by 25 billion pounds. []
Two-thirds of analysts had predicted the BoE would expand
its asset-buying scheme, but opinion had been split on whether
the increase would be 25 billion or 50 billion pounds.
The BoE, which also left interest rates unchanged at a
record low of 0.5 percent as expected, said the bond-buying
would take another three months to complete and analysts said
that would probably mark the end of the programme.
"The Bank seems to be weaning the market off QE and we
strongly suspect that -- barring any further negative surprises
to economic growth -- this will be the last instalment of the
programme," said George Buckley, economist at Deutsche Bank.
Sterling was up 0.2 percent at $1.6611 <GBP=D4> after rising
to $1.6637. The euro fell more than half a pence to the day's
low of 89.34 pence <EURGBP=R>.
Market players will also watch whether Trichet goes beyond
previous comments on the euro before a gathering of Group of 20
finance ministers this weekend.
"Ahead of the weekend's G20 meeting we don't expect the ECB
head to say anything more than the usual support for U.S.
policymakers desire for a strong dollar," Calyon analyst Stuart
Bennett said in a note to clients.
The central bank decisions in Europe come in the wake of
that of the U.S. Federal Reserve, which on Wednesday kept its
commitment to low borrowing costs for an "extended period", and
held borrowing costs near zero as expected.
The dollar initially fell as investors bought into riskier
assets, reassured that the Fed would keep rates low and
liquidity flowing, but then reversed as market players took
profits on risk assets.
The yen was broadly higher as investors took profits on
gains in cross yen pairs. The euro was down 0.3 percent at
134.42 yen <EURJPY=R>. The dollar was down 0.3 percent at 90.39
yen <JPY=>.
U.S. weekly jobless claims data are due out at 1330 GMT
ahead of closely-watched U.S. non-farm payrolls data on Friday.
(Additional reporting by Jessica Mortimer; Editing by Andy
Bruce)
