Welcome to another report, delving into the achievements of the British pound over the last week. Would the British currency manage to get the results it wanted, or would it struggle to achieve anything memorable this week?
An overview of the currency markets for April 29th – May 3rd 2013
When the week got underway, the British pound was worth 1.5475 against the US dollar. After the first day had been completed in the currency markets, the pound had improved to 1.5536. Was this a good sign of positive things to come? The following day saw a dip in proceedings, but things then perked up again and by the end of the week the pound was sitting on a respectable 1.5554.
Let’s move on now and see whether we could improve against the Euro as well. Here the pound started on 1.1904 but the currency dropped on day one, going in the opposite direction to the pattern it had begun against the dollar. Here the pound fell back to 1.1848 instead. Indeed, the first part of the week was disappointing as the pound reached a low of 1.1811 on Thursday. Fortunately it perked up to 1.1860 by Friday evening, although this was still lower than we had started with.
Over in Hong Kong, the pound began on 12.014 and immediately improved to 12.058 by the end of Monday evening. It then experienced a drop to 12.016 during the middle of the week, before finding something to fight back with against the Hong Kong dollar. Although it achieved 12.090 on Thursday evening, it then finished the week with a rate of 12.069.
As far as the New Zealand dollar was concerned, the pound was in fine form. It started on 1.8186 before dropping to 1.8154, but this was only the beginning of the story. Before reaching a rock bottom of 1.8088 at the midweek point, the pound then soared to reach 1.8355 on Thursday night. Although it then dropped to 1.8255 by Friday night, it was still better than it had been at the start of the week.
Finally, the pound started on 1.5060 against the Australian dollar, before dropping to 1.5013 on day one. It reached a low point during the middle of the week here too, falling to 1.4981 in the process. However, it then managed to finish on a healthier rate of 1.5158 on Friday night.
Notable events in the world of currency
British pound loses some ground against the Canadian dollar
There was a slight drop in fortunes here as the pound fell from 1.5780 to 1.5731.
A similar result was seen against the Swiss franc
Here too the pound fell – this time from 1.4610 to 1.4511.
And again we saw a fall against the Icelandic krona
Here the pound started on 181.386 and fell to 181.317 by the time the week was over.
All in all it was an interesting week – one that saw some mixed results for the pound. In some places it did well, and in other places it started well before dipping slightly towards the end of the week. However there were some good results mixed in with some more disappointing ones, so we could say it was a reasonable week all in all, and it could have been much worse.
The three additional currencies we looked at above all managed to get the better of the British pound over the course of the week, whereas it did better against the five major currencies we typically look at to begin our report. We can but hope it does better still next week, as the pound tries to build on the few successes it had this time around.
Rest assured we shall be watching and hoping we can find some good results to celebrate as the new week approaches. Hopefully it will be a good one overall for the British pound. We shall let you know once we have the answers.