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1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar rises on upbeat data

Xinhua, March 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

The U.S. dollar went up against most major currencies on Wednesday as economic data from the country came out overall positive.

The Non-Manufacturing Index registered 56.9 percent in February, 0.2 percentage point higher than the January reading, above market consensus of 56.5, representing continued growth in the U.S. non- manufacturing sector, said the Institute for Supply Management on Wednesday in its monthly survey.

The Automatic Data Processing (ADP) reported Wednesday that U.S. private payrolls rose 212,000 in February. The latest reading was below market consensus of a 220,000 gain but still showed the upward growth momentum of U.S employment.

Investors were awaiting the official nonfarm payroll report due out Friday to get a more comprehensive view of the recovery of the country's labor market.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major currencies, was up 0.62 percent at 95.975 in late trading, the highest level since September 2003.

Moreover, the euro decreased against the U.S. dollar to the lowest level in nearly 12 years before the European Central Bank officials discuss details of its 1.1 trillion euro bond-buying program on Thursday.

In late New York trading, the euro went down to 1.1074 dollars from 1.1178 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound declined to 1.5261 dollars from 1.5366 dollars. The Australian dollar dropped to 0.7820 dollar from 0.7822 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 119.71 Japanese yen, higher than 119.69 yen of the previous session. The greenback edged up to 0.9629 Swiss franc from 0.9611 Swiss franc, and slipped to 1.2414 Canadian dollars from 1.2487 Canadian dollars. Endite