So here we are with another week’s worth of results from the currency markets. Will the pound have had a good week or will it have struggled to maintain a good result against the likes of the Hong Kong dollar, the Euro and the US dollar? Let’s find out what happened.
An overview of the currency markets for April 16th – April 20th 2012
The pound closed out the previous week on 1.5940 against the US dollar. But as soon as the new week began it dipped to 1.5830 so it was not an encouraging sign for the week as a whole. Better news came the following day as the pound fought back to claim a rate of 1.5948, and it saved the best for last as it closed out the week on a much healthier 1.6015 in the end.
So could the pound do just as well against the Euro, starting from a rate of 1.2124? It did better on day one than it had against the US dollar, but then dipped the following day. However once again it saved its best performance for the end, when it closed on 1.2238.
The pound was worth 12.372 Hong Kong dollars at the close of play last time. It experienced the early dip that it had gone through against its US counterpart here too, but it would turn out to be the lowest point of the week. The pound then steadily rose up to finish on a high note of 12.429 against the Hong Kong dollar.
Moving on to New Zealand now, could the pound repeat the same feat here? The opening rate was 1.9214 but it didn’t dip the following day as it had elsewhere. Instead it improved to 1.9357 and it didn’t look back from that point either. Instead it carried on heading upwards to reach a closing rate that peaked at an impressive 1.9619.
So with four excellent results out of four, could we make it five out of five with an equally good performance against the Australian dollar too? We started on 1.5324 here, and after an initial but minor dip to open the week, things started to move ahead in a more positive fashion. By the time the week finished the pound had seen more success with a closing rate of 1.5484.
Notable events in the world of currency
A marginal improvement for the pound versus the Canadian dollar
Here the results may have been marginal but they still headed in the right direction. The pound improved from 1.5843 to 1.5874.
And more good news against the Swiss franc
It seemed difficult to find a bad result for the pound last week, as it improved from 1.4569 to 1.4711 against the Swiss franc
Completing the good picture against the Icelandic krona
Here was another good result as the pound pushed up from 201.957 to 203.899,
It would be common enough to wonder why the pound had done so well last week. Here, in this news story from Reuters, we can see why this was the case. In any event it was nice to get good results and to see a week where the pound had swept the board in terms of excellence. We may have seen weeks where we had reasonable results before, but we rarely had weeks where the results were this good.
The only question now is where the pound will go from here. Will it be able to consolidate those results by pushing ahead even further next week, or will this be the summit of its achievements at this moment in time? It is impossible to say, but since this really is a high point it could be reasonable to assume that the good results will continue for a while yet, backed as they are by good news from the Bank of England.
We shall be watching closely over the next few days and reporting back to you next week with the latest results.
This really was a remarkable week. I can’t remember the last time I read one of these reports and the pound had seen off every other currency pretty much. Mind you I don’t know how long it will last, because I read a news report yesterday that said the UK was officially back in recession. That double dip we were being warned about seems to have happened. I suppose this will have a marked effect on how well the currency does. I think it might be the case that the Olympics and the Jubilee will have a big effect of boosting the currency but we’ve got a little way to go until we get there yet. Hopefully they will bring more money into the country and boost business though. I suppose this has happened for other countries with the Olympics in the past.