* Euro hits 5-month high vs dollar, buoyed by ECB tender
* Worries about more QE in U.S. offset Ireland concerns
* Dollar index hits 8-month low; month-end flows dominate
* Euro on track for biggest quarterly gain in 8 years
(Adds quotes, U.S. data, updates prices, changes byline, dateline; previous LONDON)
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The euro hit a fresh five-month high against the dollar on Thursday, on pace for its best quarterly gain in eight years, after data showed euro zone banks are relying less on funds from the European Central Bank.
The news reinforced expectations Europe may gradually remove policy stimulus ahead of major economies such as the United States and Britain, helping offset concerns about Ireland's fiscal and banking problems.
Data showed on Thursday banks borrowed 29.4 billion euros of six-day ECB funds, ensuring a far bigger-than-expected drop in excess liquidity as 225 billion euros of ECB loans expire, signaling a healthier outlook for money markets. [ID:nLDE68T13O].
"The lower level of emergency borrowing combined with the expiration of previous ECB loans reduces the amount of liquidity in Europe's banking system, puts upward pressure on money market rates and signals a gradual normalization in conditions," said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange Inc in Washington.
In a day of heavy month- and quarter-end flows, investors opted to buy back the euro after it fell earlier on Ireland disclosing a worst case price tag of more than 50 billion euros to bail out its troubled banks. [ID:nLDE68T045]
In early New York trading, the euro was up 0.2 percent at
$1.3661
The euro has risen almost 12 percent versus the dollar over the course of this quarter, its best quarterly performance since June 2002.
Shaun Osborne, chief currency strategist, at TD Securities in Toronto said after reaching these lofty levels, the euro is ripe for a pullback.
"A minor consolidation would not surprise but the technical picture only really turns sour in the short-term below 1.35 and we expect solid support on dips," Osborne said.
"Underlying trend momentum here is very strong across all timeframes so expect shallow and short-lived countertrend corrections for the moment and more progress overall towards the $1.39/1.43 retracement target zone."
Euro gains helped push the dollar index to an eight-month low against a basket of currencies, although the greenback briefly trimmed losses on the back of better-than-expected U.S. growth domestic product growth and jobless claims data.
For U.S. reports, click on [ID:nN30285244].
The dollar index <.DXY> fell to an eight-month low of
78.414 and was last 78.507, down 0.2 percent. It has fallen
more than 8 percent over the quarter, leaving it on track for
its biggest quarterly fall since the second quarter of 2002.
For a graphic on 2010 market returns, click
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/F/09/GLB_MKTQE.html ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The yen, on the other hand, rose broadly on reported exporter demand for yen on the last day of Japan's fiscal half-year. This sparked concerns Japan may step in again to curb gains in its currency.
Against the yen, the dollar fell 0.5 percent to 83.28 yen
The Ministry of Finance said Japanese authorities sold 2.1249 trillion yen ($25.37 billion) in currency intervention in the latest month to Sept. 28. [ID:nTOE68T08I]
(Additional reporting by Jessica Mortimer in London; Graphic by Scott Barber; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)