Here we are again with a look at how the currency markets got underway this week. We will be taking a look at the results from Monday and Tuesday, and after the way last week ended we are intrigued to know how this fresh week began.
Last time we had four out of five great results to close the week with. Before we carry on and find out how this week began, let’s see how last week ended. For example we managed to add on 0.0167 against the US dollar, which was certainly something to appreciate.
Elsewhere we also had a good end to the week as far as the Euro was concerned. This allowed us to add on a total of 0.0135 in this situation. It was good against the Hong Kong dollar as well since we propelled ourselves up to an exchange rate of 11.908, after adding on 0.119 over those last three days of the week.
The only blip in this wonderful picture was the exchange rate we had against the New Zealand dollar on the currency converter. This saw us lose out on 0.0196 – a loss of nearly two cents that left us on 2.1557. It was back to better news with the Aussie dollar though as we ended up adding on the small amount of 0.0032 to leave us on 1.6488 as we went into the weekend.
But how did this week begin? Let’s find out now.
An overview of the currency markets for April 12th – April 13th 2010
The first stop for us is the US dollar as always, to see how the British pound would kick off a new week. The starting point was a rate of 1.5348, so we were definitely eager to stay above the $1.50 level if we could.
Monday certainly got us off to a good start as we achieved a rate of 1.5393. This may not seem like a lot but it is good to start in the right direction. But there was even more good news in store for Tuesday as we finished off on 1.5414. This meant we had added on 0.0066 over the course of the first two days of the week.
But could we achieve something similar with the Euro? Last time we left the currency exchange rate here on 1.1467, but by Monday evening this had gone down to 1.1331. Clearly we had more of a battle on our hands here than we were perhaps expecting.
Would Tuesday turn out to be the same or would we do better here? Well we certainly did perk up a little but it wasn’t enough to reverse the damage done on the previous day. We finished up on 1.1348, which meant we had lost out on just over a single Euro cent during those two days.
Let’s move on to the Hong Kong dollar now to see what happened there. After a good result to finish off last week, we were starting from an exchange rate of 11.908. Could we improve on it though?
We certainly got off to the right start as we went up to 11.942 on Monday evening. If we could achieve something similar on Tuesday as well, this would definitely put us in a good position for the remainder of the week.
And this was exactly what happened, because by Tuesday night we were on an exchange rate of 11.962. This gave us an improvement of 0.054, which was something to celebrate and take forwards to the second half of the week.
Our next stop will be interesting since this is where we struggled last time. We lost out on 0.0196 against the New Zealand dollar in the second half of last week, so we wanted to move up from the closing rate of 2.1557. Fortunately we managed to do just that by increasing our standing to 2.1612. And the British pound did better still the following day, leading us to believe the closing days of last week were more of a temporary blip than anything.
We finished on 2.1629 on Tuesday evening, giving us a two day increase of 0.0072. That was certainly a positive result.
Finally we have the starting rate from Australia to consider. We left the pound on 1.6488 against the Aussie dollar, and by Monday evening that had changed to 1.6583. Were we in for a positive time here as well? Indeed we were, as Tuesday night saw us achieve a rate of 1.6620. This totalled an increase of 0.0132.
Notable events in the world of currency
A momentary improvement for the pound against the Canadian dollar
After a good start to the week, the British pound dropped back again when it went up against the Canadian dollar. This led to just a small increase of a quarter of a cent.
The pound dips against the Swiss franc
From a rate of 1.6472 to start the week with, the pound went down to 1.6307 by the close of play on Tuesday evening.
Another dip against Iceland’s currency too
The pound didn’t do well against Iceland either. It started the week on 196.546 but dipped back to 94.143 by the time Tuesday’s trading was over.
The story about Greek aid being granted in Europe didn’t do the British pound much good at the start of this week, according to various news reports. This one from Reuters tells the story.
So it has been a reasonable start to the week, although perhaps it has not been as good as the end of last week turned out to be. We can only hope that as the week moves on we can start to see some even better results for the British pound.
Although with the election coming ever closer and various news stories being reported about how the pound is affected by this big event, we can only hope that things do not take a turn for the worse. We’ll be back to report on the latest news very soon.