LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - The euro rose briefly against the dollar, while German Bund futures dipped temporarily on Thursday after the European Central Bank handed out a below-forecast 82.6 billion euros in its first offering of four-year loans to banks.
The take-up was lower than the 133 billion euros forecast in a Reuters poll, but traders said this was offset by expectations that a small figure might prompt the ECB to take more monetary stimulus measures, such as buying assets to print money - a tool known as quantitative easing (QE).
"Logic should say (the result) should be slightly bearish on the periphery, especially the front end of the market, but the reaction seems to be very muted," a trader said.
"The weaker it is the more chance you get of substantial QE down the line so I think the market is weighing up the short- term against the long-term (view) at the moment."
The euro initially rose to $1.29 after the results were announced, from around $1.2890 beforehand. It subsequently pared those gains to trade at $1.2877.
German Bund futures dipped as low as 148.05 before recovering to 148.45, up five ticks on the day.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index briefly trimmed gains and was 0.8 percent higher at 1,395.95 points.
(Reporting by London markets team; Writing by Marius Zaharia, editing by Nigel Stephenson)