Welcome to another look at the currency markets and how the British pound tackled them last week. Some weeks are definitely more successful for the currency than others, but which camp would it fall into this time around?
An overview of the currency markets for November 19th – November 23rd 2012
The week opened with the British pound worth 1.5882 against the US dollar. But things soon changed because after just forty eight hours the conversion rate was 1.5918. So would this be a good week for the pound? It strengthened its performance a little more over the next couple of days as well, pushing through to earn a rate of 1.5962 by Thursday evening. Unfortunately it dropped back to close out the week, but not by much – it ended up on 1.5935.
So could the pound repeat this performance against the Euro? Here it was worth 1.2461 to begin with, and this actually dropped a little on day one to 1.2450. It fell again the following day to 1.2427 before perking up again the day after and reaching 1.2442. Unfortunately it would turn out to be a minor reprieve – the close of the week saw the pound on a weaker 1.2344 against the European single currency.
Let’s move on to see how things are going against the Hong Kong dollar now. We started on 12.312 here and after one day this had changed little, to 12.316. But things were looking up a little more the day after, rising to 12.339 in the process. Could the pound have a much stronger week here instead of falling down in value near the end? The answer was a positive one – the closing rate for the pound against the Hong Kong dollar was a healthy 12.350.
Next is the head to head with the New Zealand dollar. This saw the pound with an opening rate of 1.9613 but unfortunately it fell significantly to end the first day on 1.9448. Thankfully it perked up again but it took a couple of days to do it, before reaching an exchange rate of 1.9585. The pound peaked too soon as well, because by the end of the week it had dropped back to 1.9454.
Finally we have the head to head with the Australian dollar. Here the pound started the week on 1.5374 but it immediately fell to 1.5292 by the end of day one. Fortunately it had a little more left in the tank and improved to reach a high of 1.5377 by Thursday evening. It didn’t quite have enough to last out the week though, and in the end it reached 1.5298 on Friday night.
Notable events in the world of currency
Pound sees very little change against the Canadian dollar
Things were up and down here this week, but in the end the pound moved from 1.5892 to 1.5880, losing just a little last week.
Things are on the downward slope against the Swiss franc
Here the news was not so good, as the pound lost ground continually against the Swiss franc last week. It fell from 1.5006 to 1.4874 over the course of the week.
But better news against the Chinese yuan
Here the pound did rather better, as it moved up from 9.9035 to 9.9254 as the week went by.
So it was an interesting time against all manner of currencies last week. There was no specific pattern to follow across all of them – the trend was very up and down depending on the currency the pound went head to head with. It shows how much things can change against various currencies and how quickly it can happen.
Needless to say we’ll be watching to see how things progress next week, so we can find out whether we will have more good news to share with you – or something very different indeed. We hope you’ll join us again then.