By Cecile Lefort and Rebecca Howard
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The Australian dollar on Friday looked set for its largest monthly gain versus the euro since 2012, but was little changed against its U.S. counterpart in thin trade due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
The Aussie was on track for hefty gains against the battered euro EURAUD=R , which has tumbled around 5 percent this month on expectations that the European Central bank will roll out more stimulus in December.
If sustained, it would be the largest drop in three years.
Against the U.S. dollar, the Aussie AUD=D4 held at $0.7228, having touched a one-month peak of $0.7283 on Wednesday.
It has gained 1.3 percent in November in a second consecutive month of gains, partly due to expectations the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is in no rush to cut interest rates again.
The central bank's next policy meeting is on Dec. 1 and economists expect the RBA to keep interest rates at a record low of 2.0 percent.
Interbank futures 0#YIB: imply almost no chance of an easing. The market gives a 42 percent chance of a cut by March, from 62 percent last week.
The New Zealand dollar NZD=D4 was subdued at $0.6563, from a peak of $0.6598 on Thursday. It touched a two-week high of $0.6606 this week, but was down nearly 3 percent in November.
Kymberly Martin, a senior market strategist for BNZ in Wellington, said investors will be watching for the release of third-quarter UK GDP data as a possible driver of sterling later in the global trading day.
New Zealand government bonds 0#NZTSY= gained slightly, sending yields down half a basis point at the short end and down 1 bps at the long end.
BNZ's Martin said there was good demand shown at yesterday's government bond sale of NZ$200 million.
"The tender suggests some tentative interest may be returning to the NZGB market," she said.
Australian government bond futures had a soft tone, with the three-year bond contract YTTc1 off 2 ticks at 97.910. The 10-year contract YTCc1 eased 1.5 tick to 97.1250, while the 20-year contract YXXc1 shed 1 tick to 96.6250. (Editing by Kim Coghill)