Trading in the UK was limited due to a bank holiday. According to Hometrack, UK house values rose in May for the 10th month as a shortage of properties for sale allowed real-estate agents to raise prices. The average price of a home in England and Wales increased 0.2 per cent from April while prices rose two per cent.

US dollar

Like in the United Kingdom, trading in the United States is limited due to a bank holiday. The greenback, like the Japanese yen, are this month's top performers among the world's 16 most used currencies, having attracted capital as Greece received an emergency-loan package from the European Union and Italy, Spain and Portugal slashed budgets to shore up confidence in their finances.

Euro

The euro pared its biggest monthly drop since January last year after data showed investors are reducing bearish bets on the currency. Europe's currency is poised for a 7.6 per cent drop against the dollar in May. That's its sixth-straight monthly decline, the longest since a seven-month streak ending in April 2000. Concern this year that countries such as Greece would default sparked speculation the 16-nation euro would break apart. Fitch Ratings on Friday stripped Spain of its AAA credit grade, saying the nation's debt burden is likely to weigh on economic growth.

Japanese yen

The yen weakened against its major counterparts as advancing stock markets fanned investments in higher-yielding assets and after Japan's Social Democratic Party left a three-way coalition government. The Japanese currency, which rose against all 16 most-traded peers this month as Europe's credit crisis drove investors to the safest assets, fell after a poll showed more than half the nation's voters want Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyoma to resign.

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