Asian shares flat but on track for weekly gains

TOKYO - Asian shares flatlined on Friday but were on track for robust weekly gains, while the euro caught its breath after sliding when the European Central Bank trimmed the size of its asset purchase programme and also extended it for longer than many had expected. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS wobbled close to the previous session's close in early trading, poised for a weekly gain of 2.2 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock index was up 0.6 percent, up 2.4 percent for the week in which the dollar gained 0.6 percent against the yen. The dollar was up 0.1 percent at 114.18 yen. The euro was licking its wounds at $1.0615. It had been as high $1.0875 before collapsing when markets realised the ECB's actions were actually very dovish. The ECB said it would reduce its monthly asset buys to 60 billion euros (£50.6 billion) as of April, from the current 80 billion euros, and extend purchases to December from March - three months longer than what some analysts had forecast. That dragged down two-year yields across Europe and sharply steepened the yield curve, a gift for banks that typically borrow short maturities and lend long. The promise of lower rates for longer was taken as a green light for carry trades, where investors borrow euros at cheap rates to invest in higher yielding currencies. "This effective and extended easing may make euro a funding currency of choice and so puts euro-crosses in focus," Westpac analyst Tim Riddell said in a note. ECB President Mario Draghi said the unexpected move was not an outright winding-down of the central bank's quantitative easing (QE) programme, and the central bank reserved the right to increase the size of purchases again if the eurozone economy falters. The ECB's bond purchase changes came less than a week before the Federal Reserve's policy meeting next Tuesday and Wednesday. Interest rates futures FFZ6, FFM7 implied traders saw a 98 percent chance the US central bank would raise interest rates by a quarter point next week, and about a 50 percent chance it would raise rates by at least another quarter point by June 2017, according to CME Group's FedWatch programme. Despite the impending rate hike, major US stock indexes climbed again on Thursday and set fresh record highs as Wall Street continued its month-long rally following the election of Donald Trump to president. "We're at a point in time between big announcements from a couple of the big central banks after the ECB, and looking forward to fed next week, so the current momentum underway seems to be the path of least resistance at this point in time," said Bill Northey, chief investment officer of the private client group at US Bank in Helena, Montana. -Reuters