April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Canada’s dollar appreciated for a second day against its U.S. counterpart as housing starts unexpectedly rose, increasing speculation that the Bank of Canada may delay so-called quantitative easing.

“The market sold dollar-Canada just when the housing numbers came out,” said Jack Spitz, managing director of foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada in Toronto. “It’s contributing to the view that Governor Carney may continue to guide expectations away from quantitative easing.”

Central bank Governor Mark Carney has pledged to lay out later this month a plan for the policy, in which capital injections are used to buy debt assets, spur lending and ignite growth. Similar policies weakened currencies in the U.S., U.K. and Switzerland when they were announced.

The Canadian currency rose 0.3 percent to C$1.2329 per U.S. dollar at 9:20 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.2372 yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys 81.11 U.S. cents.

Housing starts rose last month to 154,700 units on an annualized basis on higher construction of multiple-unit buildings, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said today in Ottawa. Economists anticipated the pace would slow to 130,000 units, according the median of 21 responses in a Bloomberg News survey of economists.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Montreal at cfournier3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 8, 2009 09:23 EDT