Sterling pares losses vs dollar after HSBC results

LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) - Sterling briefly pared losses versus the dollar on Monday after HSBC results showed that the bank had suffered lower writedowns from the credit crunch than many in the market had expected.

By 0826 GMT the pound was down 0.1 percent against the dollar at $1.9508, from $1.9490 before the results were released <GBP=>.

"We had some fairly negative expectations built in, it seems that if you beat expectations down far enough then its (results) are not as bad as feared," said Jeremy Stretch, market strategist at Rabobank. (Reporting by Veronica Brown and Simon Falush)