By Josie Cox 

The promise of a massive bond-buying plan from the European Central Bank has pumped the region's bonds to new highs in recent months and hit the euro. Now that the program is about to start, investors seem eager to keep going.

Friday, the euro hit a new 11-year low of $1.0969, while the yields on bonds issued by one-time trouble spots such as Portugal, Italy and Spain sank to their lowest points since the euro was introduced. Yields fall when prices rise.

The moves come a day after ECB President Mario Draghi underlined his commitment to a massive bond-buying plan, which will start Monday.

Even with yields on Portuguese 10-year bonds, for example, down at 1.6720%, scope for further declines remains. Mr. Draghi said in his regular news conference Thursday that the bank would buy debt even with yields under 0% as part of its EUR1 trillion ($1.1 trillion) bond-buying program, as long as those yields aren't below the ECB's deposit rate of minus 0.2%.

Strategists at BNP Paribas said that this "dispels previous concerns that the ECB may not be able to achieve its balance sheet target" of buying EUR60 billion of bonds a month until at least September 2016 to rekindle lackluster growth in the region.

Although the ECB raised its growth forecasts for the currency area, Riccardo Barbieri, chief European economist at Mizuho International in London, said that "it would take much bigger upside surprises than what we have seen so far for the new QE program to be called into question." In the meantime, he said, government bonds will continue to be in demand, he said.

"Credit investors extended longs significantly in anticipation of the [QE] implementation, raising the possibility that the [bond] rally loses some momentum near term," said Hans Lorenzen, senior credit strategist at Citigroup.

"However, our view remains that the distortions created by the [program] will continue to drive spreads tighter over the coming weeks and months, " he added.

The euro has now depreciated more than 20% against the buck over the past year, reflecting the growing divergence in monetary policy between the U.S. and Europe.

In contrast to the eurozone's easing efforts, the U.S. Federal Reserve is still expected to begin raising interest rates as early as later this year. Key jobs data due later in the session may provide further guidance on the strength of the U.S. recovery to date and therefore the potential timing of a rate increase.

In equity markets Friday, the Stoxx Europe 600 edged lower in early trade, having closed the previous session sharply higher, also buoyed by the ECB's commitment to stimulus. Individual country indexes, which had also rallied hard Thursday, were mixed.

The biggest gainer on the pan-European stock index was U.K. travel company Thomas Cook Group PLC.

Shares surged after Fosun International Ltd., a major private-owned conglomerate in China, said it would invest about GBP91.85 million ($140 million) in the company.

Write to Josie Cox at josie.cox@wsj.com

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