Published: February 6, 2012

LONDON: The euro fell on Monday on mounting investor concern that Greek coalition parties had yet to sign off on the terms of a new bailout, keeping alive the risk of a messy default that could ensnare other countries such as Portugal. Greece’s coalition members must agree to painful terms of a new bailout worth 130 billion euros before eurozone finance ministers next meet, with a Greek government official denying that there was a deadline for the parties to respond to. The single currency was down 0.8 percent at $1.3036, tripping stops below $1.3050 as it dropped to $1.3030 on trading platform EBS. Near term support lies at $1.3023 - its Feb 1 trough- and more stops cited below $1.3020 with investors like macro funds looking to sell above $1.3100. “Real money investors are still structurally short of the euro and if cash is not made available to Greece, it will not be good news,” Chris Walker, currency strategist at UBS. Speculators have trimmed their record bearish bets against the euro with data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showing that positioning against the common currency had declined in the latest week to Jan 31. Against the yen, the euro fell 0.7 percent to 99.88 yen while against the safe-haven Swiss franc, the common currency was 0.1 percent lower at 1.2060 francs.

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