FOREX-Swiss franc slips, Norway’s crown jumps as SNB keeps rates, Norges Bank hikes

By Joice Alves

London, Dec 16 (Reuters) – The Swiss franc fell and the
Norwegian crown rose on Thursday after the Swiss National Bank
kept its ultra-low interest rates unchanged while the Norges
Bank raised its benchmark rate.

On a busy day for central banks, euro and sterling edged
higher ahead of Bank of England and European Central Bank
monetary policy meetings, a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve
unveiled its tightening plans.

The SNB kept its key rate at -0.75%, while the Norges Bank
raised its benchmark interest rate to 0.50% and said more hikes
will likely follow next year.

The Swiss franc fell 0.15 versus the euro at
1.0453 at 1100 GMT, not far from its highest level since July
2015, while the Norwegian crown rose 0.3% versus the
dollar to 8.96 crowns.

“Despite Omicron, Norges Bank has carried on as planned with
a 25 basis point rate hike”, ING strategists said. “That
shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, partly because policymakers
had signalled the move fairly explicitly over recent weeks”.

In London morning trading, investors awaited the outcome of
the Bank of England meeting at 1200 GMT and the European Central
Bank at 1245 GMT.

“The BOE and ECB are still to come. UK rate-guidance has
been frenetic and unreliable, but currently hints at waiting for
February,” said Kit Juckes, head of FX strategy at Societe
Generale in London.

“The ECB may play with bond-buying acronyms but will keep
buying regardless and won’t talk about rate hikes at all”.

Sterling rose 0.15% on the day versus the dollar to
$1.3282, while the euro was flat versus the greenback
at $1.12950.

Against a basket of currencies the dollar slipped 0.1% to
96.292, after hitting a three-week high in the previous day, as
the Fed said it will end its pandemic-era bond buying in March
and pave the way for an expected three interest rate hikes in
2022..

The Swedish crown rose 0.5% versus the U.S. dollar
at 9.07 as data showed unemployment in the country fell to 7.5%
in November.

(Reporting by Joice Alves; Editing by Hugh Lawson)