1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar climbs on ECB decision

The U.S. dollar rose against most other major currencies on Thursday as the European Central Bank (ECB) kept its interest rates unchanged and increased the issue share limit.

The ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations, on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility would remain unchanged at 0.05 percent, 0.3 percent and -0.2 percent respectively.

ECB President Mario Draghi announced the issue share limit would be raised from the initial limit of 25 percent to 33 percent. This would allow the central bank to purchase more single issue bonds.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.61 percent to 96.408 in late trading.

On the U.S. economic front, in the week ending Aug. 29, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims increased 12,000 from the previous week's revised level to 282,000, exceeding market estimates of 273,000, said the U.S. Labor Department Thursday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Non-Manufacturing Index registered 59 percent in August, 1.3 percentage points lower than the July reading, said the Institute Supply Management in its monthly survey.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1121 dollars from 1.1240 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dropped to 1.5259 dollars from 1.5305 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar moved down to 0.7017 dollar from 0.7034 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 120.00 Japanese yen, lower than 120.23 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar rose to 0.9736 Swiss franc from 0.9692 Swiss franc, and it declined to 1.3198 Canadian dollars from 1.3281 Canadian dollars. Endit