Welcome to our next currency report, where we find out whether the pound was able to achieve the good results we wanted it to achieve this week. As it turned out we didn’t get the results we wanted – at least not in every area.
An overview of the currency markets for May 6th – May 10th 2013
As the week began, the British pound stood at 1.5554 against the US dollar. From this point it edged slightly downwards, reaching 1.5546 by the time the day was over. Where would it go from here? Unfortunately the answer was lower, as it hit 1.5525 on Tuesday evening and 1.5509 on Wednesday. The lowest point was still to come though, as it fell to 1.5383 by Friday night.
Could the pound put this performance behind it and achieve something better against the Euro? Here the opening rate was 1.1860 but this soon dropped to 1.1807 by the time Wednesday arrived. Fortunately the second half of the week was better, although the pound still finished down on its original rate by ending the week on 1.1844.
Now let’s see what happened against the Hong Kong dollar. Here the pound started on 12.069 and once again the general trend was unfortunately to lose ground. By Wednesday evening the pound had dropped to 12.036, and although it rose to 12.077 the following day, it was not enough to erase the damage that had been done. Instead the week ended on 11.938 here.
Our fourth stop is as ever with the New Zealand dollar. Our opening rate here is 1.8255 and although Monday’s performance saw the pound fall to 1.8242, it perked up the following day to close on 1.8389. From there onwards things looked better, and although there was a slight fall on Thursday, things improved to see the pound close on a healthy 1.8504 on Friday night.
Could the pound achieve a similar result against the Australian dollar as well? Its starting rate here was 1.5158 and although there was a drop on day one, not to mention an unsteady performance for the first half of the week, there was good news to come. The pound then picked up and managed to get to a high rate of 1.5371 by Friday night. So this was another good result in the scheme of things, although we would have preferred to see good results across the board.
Notable events in the world of currency
The pound drops against the Canadian dollar
There were not any good results here, as the pound fell considerably from 1.5731 to 1.5531 over the week.
Better news arises against the Swiss franc
The pattern seen against the Canadian dollar was almost completely reversed against the Swiss franc. Here the pound rose from 1.4511 to 1.4722.
A slightly better result against the Icelandic krona as well
Here the pound managed to rise from 181.317 to 182.744 as the week went on.
It has been an interesting week for the British pound all in all. In many respects it has managed to perform well, at least against some of the major currencies, not least the New Zealand dollar and the Australian dollar. However, it did badly against the US dollar and the Euro, where we would have hoped for a better performance. We can only wonder whether the pound will improve in the weeks to come, and give us some better results as the time goes on.
It does however keep us on our toes, since the last few weeks have seen more than their fair share of ups and downs. Perhaps we can hope for better results in the weeks to come, and a steady improvement rather than the rather erratic pattern we have seen of late.
Whatever may happen in the near future, you can be sure we will be here to give you the answers you are looking for. Be sure to look out for next week’s report.