[ZURICH] The Swiss National Bank's foreign exchange reserves edged higher in January, data showed on Friday.

The figures are the first indication of the central bank's currency holdings after it shocked financial markets by scrapping the more than three-year-old cap last month, a policy it later said would have cost 100 billion francs (US$108.09 billion) to defend in January alone.

The SNB held 498.398 billion Swiss francs in foreign currency at the end of January, compared with 495.130 billion francs in December, revised from an originally reported 495.104 billion, preliminary data calculated according to the standards of the International Monetary Fund showed.

REUTERS