Loonie's advance against dollar restricted by Greek election anticipations

The value of the Canadian dollar gained against its southerly counterpart Thursday but that strong performance was tempered by anticipations of Sunday's second round of elections in Greece, Reuters reports.

The loonie's recent performance has followed U.S. stocks but investors, traders and market participants are keeping a close eye on the Aegean nation in the run up to Sunday, the follow to early May elections that were inconclusive.

"I think there's a reluctance for anyone to take a strong view ahead of the potentially very important events at the weekend, and the closer we get to that, the less appetite there is to position one way or the other," head of foreign exchange strategy Adam Cole with Royal Bank of Canada in London told Reuters. "The result is so hard to call, and the outcomes potentially so polar in terms of what they imply for markets. It's something that's very, very hard to position for."

Also impacting the performance of the monetary unit on Thursday was economic data indicating April saw new home prices gain 0.2 percent, which was lower than the 0.3 percent forecast in a poll of analysts administered by Reuters.

The Canadian Press reports increased borrowing expenses in Spain and Italy also tempered gains for the loonie.