By Lisa Twaronite, MarketWatch TOKYO (MarketWatch) - The dollar gained against the euro in Asian trading Thursday, after the International Monetary Fund said late Wednesday that it plans to sell 191.3 tons of gold, likely on the open market. The IMF's announcement pushed spot prices and gold-miner shares lower. The planned sales would be valued at about $6.19 billion at current prices, according to CNBC. See full story on IMF gold sales. The news weighed mostly on the European unit and the commodities-sensitive Australian dollar. The Aussie was buying 89.64 U.S. cents, down 0.2%, while the euro changed hands at $1.3588, down from $1.3633 in late North American trading on Wednesday. "All the bears gathered together in the past 12 hours, but not for a picnic," said Sue Trinh, senior currency strategist at the Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong, in a note to clients Thursday. The dollar index (DXY 80.70, +0.33, +0.41%) , which tracks the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose to 80.531 from 80.40 late Wednesday. Wednesday's minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's most recent meeting on monetary policy also helped U.S. dollar sentiment, as they showed that several members wanted the Fed to sell assets in the near future. But the dollar slipped against its Japanese counterpart, to 90.93 yen from 91.13 yen late Wednesday. The Bank of Japan kept its key interest rate on hold at 0.1% Thursday by unanimous vote as widely expected, maintained its overall economic view, and didn't issue any new policy initiatives Thursday. It repeated its pledge to do all it could to pull Japan out of deflation. See full story on Bank of Japan meeting. On Wednesday, the dollar rallied 1% against major currencies, lifted by upbeat U.S. economic reports and signs of impatience about easy monetary policy within the Fed, while debt concerns still weighed on the euro. See Wednesday's Currencies report.

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