Last time around we saw that the British pound had very little to celebrate. There were no really good results to be had anywhere, particularly not against the New Zealand dollar. So would this week be any better?
An overview of the currency markets for April 4th – April 8th 2011-04-11
Last time on the currency converter we saw the British pound was worth 1.6041 against the US dollar at the close of the week. By the end of day one things had improved until the pound was on 1.6164. But this was thankfully not the end of the improvements.
Over the course of the week the onus was definitely on the pound to make more improvements. By the time Friday night rolled around we were on a much better 1.6347 as a result.
So could we see a similar outcome against the Euro? Our starting rate here was 1.1344 but although we improved that to 1.1351 the following day and 1.1456 after that, it was a very see saw week. After some real ups and downs we did manage to come out very slightly on top with a rate of 1.1351.
Over to the Hong Kong dollar now and it’s time to see if we can beat the 12.480 rate we closed on the previous week. This currency followed a very similar path to the US dollar, allowing the pound to take control for virtually every single day. This meant we finished on a high point of 12.700 overall.
But could we do the same against the New Zealand dollar? We have had two disastrous weeks here and we didn’t want a third. The opening rate was 2.1007 but it was a painfully slow two day climb to achieve 2.1094 by Tuesday evening. The best we could do was a closing rate of 2.0938, so once again we had not managed to get the better of the New Zealand dollar. At least the rot had slowed down a bit.
Finally it’s the turn of the Australian dollar to try and win over the pound. The opening rate here was 1.5483 and by midweek the pound had managed to improve that to 1.5730. Unfortunately we did then fall back to 1.5536 to close out the week. At least this was a little better though.
Notable events in the world of currency
Another good increase against the Bermuda dollar
We seem to have done well against a raft of dollars last week, and this includes the Bermudan dollar. We climbed from 1.6051 to 1.6348.
A slight increase against the Canadian dollar
This wasn’t a huge increase but we still went up from 1.5525 to 1.5597 over the course of the week.
Another good result against the Swiss franc too
It was good news virtually all round last week, as the British pound managed to improve from 1.4814 to 1.4941 by Friday night.
Exchange rates are obviously the crux of what happens on the currency markets. This was clear in some of the stories that appeared on the main currency websites last week. A typical example appeared on the FT.com website, concerning the situation that Brazil has found itself in. The idea is to keep its exchange rate under control, and the article does make for interesting reading.
So it has been a better week for the British pound, with some better results all round. Even where it has not performed particularly well we have not seen a repeat of some of the large losses we had seen the past couple of weeks. This at least is something to be grateful for.
The question now is whether we will see another good week next time, or whether this is just setting us up for another bad week again. You just never know on the currency markets, but we shall be there to see what happens next.