TOKYO, Sep 27 The dollar steadied off record lows against the euro on Thursday as investo

TOKYO, Sep 27 (Reuters) The dollar steadied off record lows against the euro on Thursday as investors hunted bargains after the U.S. currency's sharp fall in the past month due to the Federal Reserve's monetary easing.

The dollar hit a 15-year low versus a basket of major currencies earlier this week after the U.S. central bank cut its benchmark fed funds rate by 50 basis points to 4.75 percent last week.

An unexpectedly steep decline in U.S. durable goods orders data released in the previous session reinforced expectations that the Fed will lower interest rates again in October, a move that would further hurt the dollar's yield appeal.

But investors shrugged off the economic report as they believed the pace of the fall in the dollar has been too fast.

''The dollar is still on a downward trend,'' said a senior trader at a Japanese brokerage. ''But it is also true that investors are wary of the euro being overbought against the dollar.'' The euro has risen nearly 4 percent against the dollar so far this month.

In early Asian trade, the euro was steady against the dollar from late U.S. trade at $1.4128 The euro rose to $1.4163 on electronic trading platform EBS on Wednesday, the highest since the European single currency was launched in 1999.

The dollar index was at 78.513 after sliding to a 15-year low of 78.210 earlier this week, near an all-time low of 78.190.

The U.S. currency fell a tad to 115.45 yen from 115.55 yen.

The euro traded at 163.11 yen, near a seven-week high of 163.44 hit the previous day.

Several Japanese mutual funds featuring foreign assets will be launched this session, and traders said Japanese investment trusts were expected to buy the euro and dollar actively, weighing on the yen.

Reuters KK VP0745