Last time we had a very good set of results for the British pound. In fact we were hard pressed to find a bad result among all of them. But would this week be the same or were we hoping for too much? Let’s find out the answers now and see whether the pound had what was needed to get some good results.
An overview of the currency markets for September 30th– October 4th 2013
As the week began, the British pound stood at a rate of 1.6115 against the US dollar. This got better before the end of the day, as it rose once more to 1.6153. Was this a sign of things to come? It improved to 1.6242 the next day but although things were looking good at this stage it was not going to continue. By the time the week was up, the pound had dropped to 1.6050 against the US dollar – falling lower than the original opening rate.
Would the same happen against the Euro though? The pound opened the week on 1.1904 before improving to close the day on 1.1961. Indeed the first half of the week was very good, seeing the pound rising to a high of 1.1988 on Wednesday. Unfortunately it couldn’t sustain this rate for another couple of days, and it slipped back, losing ground in the process and ending up on 1.1807.
The next stop is as always with the Hong Kong dollar. The opening rate was 12.497 and again the British pound was in the ascendancy on the first couple of days, taking the exchange rate to 12.595 in the process. But there was little good news to be had in the second half of the week, as the pound found some weakness in its performance. This led to a week ending rate of 12.446 – which once again was lower than the opening rate had been on Monday morning.
Onto the New Zealand dollar now, where the pound had an opening rate of 1.9491 to work with. We often see significant changes in the exchange rate here, as we did last week. The same would be true here as well, as the pound managed to achieve a high point of 1.9673. Unfortunately this was on Wednesday, and after that things went downhill. The pound closed once again on a lower rate than it had started with, this time falling to 1.9324.
Finally we have the Australian dollar to look at. The pound started the week on 1.7311 and managed to buck the trend slightly by turning an early rise into a lower rate of 1.7241 on Tuesday evening. This then went up to 1.7333 on Wednesday before the same picture was borne out yet again. We finished up on 1.7013 on Friday night.
Notable events in the world of currency
A loss against the Canadian dollar
There was bad news here too as the pound fell from 1.6627 to 1.6580.
A slight drop against the Swiss franc as well
The picture was predictable by now as the pound lost ground, going from 1.4580 to 1.4489 across the week.
Three out of three
And again we saw a drop as the pound went from 195.816 to 194.128 against the Icelandic krona.
Clearly there was little to celebrate this week. It proved to be a complete contrast to last week, when all we had was good news for you. It remains to be seen whether we will go back to all good news next time, or whether we will have more of the same to report.
The events in the world have a marked effect on how the British pound acts and reacts in the currency markets. We can only hope we fare better next time around, instead of being reduced in value as was the case this time. Come back next time and find out the answers with us.