By Lukanyo Mnyanda Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The pound advanced against the dollar after the Bank of England left its bond-purchase program unchanged and kept its main interest rate at a record low. Sterling also climbed versus the yen after the central bank said it wouldn’t add to the 175 billion pounds ($278 billion) it has committed to the plan, as predicted by all 42 economists in a Bloomberg survey. “The Bank of England has been damping any expectations of an increase to asset purchases or a reduction in the deposit rate,” said Daragh Maher, deputy head of global foreign exchange at Calyon, the investment-banking unit of Credit Agricole SA. “There is a lot of uncertainty about the BOE’s intentions though. Any sense of clarity will be positive for sterling.” The pound was at $1.6043 as of 12:03 p.m. in London, from $1.5969 yesterday. It was little changed at 92.03 pence per euro. It climbed 0.2 percent to 141.80 yen. The yield on the two-year gilt increased 4 basis points to 0.75 percent. The yield on the 10-year security was little changed at 3.39 percent. Sterling climbed 0.6 percent against the dollar and 0.5 percent versus the euro on Sept. 10, when the Bank of England left the asset-purchase program unchanged. The pound slumped 0.8 percent against the euro and lost 1.2 percent against the dollar on Aug. 6 when the central bank unexpectedly extended its asset-purchases by 50 billion pounds.

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