Forex Market: EUR/CAD trims earlier losses following Canadian foreign securities purchases, Crimean vote

The euro managed to pare earlier losses against the Canadian dollar on Monday, while the value of Canadas foreign securities purchases was reported below experts expectations in January.

EUR/CAD slid to a daily low at 1.5338 at 11:30 GMT. At 13:12 GMT the pair cut its daily loss to 0.39%, trading at 1.5390. Support was likely to be received at March 13th low, 1.5310, while resistance was to be met at current session high, 1.5441. Last week EUR/CAD pair gained 0.45%.

The value of securities transactions between Canadian residents and foreign investors was reported to have reached 1.09 billion CAD in January, while preliminary estimates pointed to a figure of 3.24 billion CAD.

Meanwhile, the annualized rate of consumer inflation in the single currency zone was reported to have weakened in February, which may put pressure on the European Central Bank to introduce new measures in order to spur economic growth. The annualized HICP came in at 0.7% last month, a level last seen during October 2013, which was still far below central bank’s inflation objective of 2%, that provides price stability. Experts had anticipated that the annual inflation rate will remain steady at 0.8% in February.

Yesterday the preliminary results from Crimea’s referendum revealed that 96% of voters in the peninsula supported leaving Ukraine and joining Russia. The Ukrainian government, the European Union and the United States consider this vote as illegitimate, while the Russian Federation said that it “fully met international norms.”

The United States and the European Union warned the Russian Federation not to annex Crimea after the referendum in the Black Sea peninsula, an act which may lead to sanctions on Russia.

The Kremlin has deployed about 60 000 troops along the Ukrainian border, according to Ukraines government. Ukraine closed border crossings to Russia and is to mobilize 15 000 volunteers over the next 15 days to defend the country, as reported by Bloomberg News.