By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

The euro fell sharply against its rivals in early trade Sunday as the first official projection from Greece's referendum showed 61% of voters rejected terms set forth by the country's creditors, but the European currency soon began modestly paring its losses as investors pondered the road ahead.

At about 3:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern time, shortly after early results from the Greek vote broke, the euro was showing a daily loss of 1.2% against the dollar at $1.0979, according to FactSet, almost a full cent off its $1.1082 level late Friday.

But four hours later, the euro had recovered a bit of lost ground to trade at $1.1010, or a 0.9% loss.

Against the yen, the shared currency was off 2% at Yen133.80 at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time, but then trimmed losses modestly to Yen134.73, down 1.3% for the day.

Against the Swiss franc, the euro was down 0.6% at 1.0390 francs, moving off a 0.9% loss at 1.0360 francs immediately after news of the apparent referendum outcome.

If confirmed, the referendum's result will indicate there was a larger-than-expected backing for the Greek government's position in its stance against other European entities, as well as underscore questions about Greece's future in the euro.

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