* Euro jumps 50 pips vs Swiss franc from around 1.4635 francs
* Traders say SNB seen buying euro vs Swiss franc on EBS
* Dollar index dips, focus on Bernanke for rate outlook
* Yen eyes possible toushin outflows, Dai-ichi IPO
By Masayuki Kitano
TOKYO, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The euro rose against the Swiss
franc on Tuesday, with traders saying the Swiss central bank was
seen buying euros in suspected intervention against the Swiss
franc in Asian trading hours.
The euro jumped from 1.4635 Swiss francs to 1.4684 in about
10 minutes. Two traders at European banks said the SNB had been
seen buying the euro against the Swiss franc on trading platform
EBS.
Officials at the Swiss National Bank declined comment.
"The market had already been speculating that there might be
SNB intervention since early morning because the euro had fallen
be low 1.4640 Swiss francs, the level where market players
thought the SNB may step in," said a trader at a European bank.
The euro's rise against the Swiss franc was not as sharp as
the jump seen during the SNB's intervention in Asian trading
hours on Feb. 5, when the euro shot up to 1.4905 francs from
about 1.4700.
The euro last stood at 1.4674 Swiss francs, a gain of 0.3
percent on the day. The euro rose as high as 1.4687 Swiss francs
earlier.
The dollar edged up 0.1 percent against the Swiss franc to
1.0769 francs <CHF=>, having come off an intraday low near
1.0735.
The dollar, however, was broadly lower on the day, dipping
0.1 percent against a basket of currencies to 80.396 <.DXY>.
The dollar index had hit an eight-month high of 81.342 last
week after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised the discount rate,
stoking jitters about the possibility of an early interest rate
rise by the Fed.
The euro rose 0.2 percent to $1.3625 <EUR=>.
A focal point for the dollar is Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke's testimony to Congress on Wednesday and Thursday.
San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen
said the U.S. economy still needed extraordinarily low interest
rates as inflation was "undesirably low", a view some expect to
be echoed by Fed chief Ben Bernanke in coming days. []
Traders say, however, that if Bernanke does throw cold water
on rate prospects, any fall in the dollar is likely to be
short-lived as many believe the Fed will still be the first among
the major central banks in raising interest rates.
"Although Fed officials sought to stamp out the idea that the
discount rate increase is a tightening of monetary policy, the
move did give the impression the Fed had started to exit from
loose monetary policy," said Tomohiro Nishida, treasury
department manager at Chuo Mitsui Trust and Banking.
The dollar dipped 0.1 percent against the yen to 91.06 yen
<JPY=>. The euro inched up 0.1 percent against the yen to 124.04
yen <EURJPY=R>.
The yen was caught between speculation about possible
overseas investor demand for the yen related to Japanese life
insurer Dai-ichi Life's planned IPO, and talk of investment trust
outflows into overseas markets.
Traders cited Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance's plan to sell
about 1.07 trillion yen ($11.7 billion) of shares in its market
debut as a potentially supportive factor for the yen.
But the yen, however, may come under pressure in the near
term depending on the size of yen-selling generated by the launch
of various Japanese mutual funds or toushin this week.
(Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko and Charlotte Cooper in
TOKYO and Anirban Nag in SYDNEY; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
