Welcome to another of our regular currency reports, and it’s an interesting one at that. Remember two weeks ago we had an excellent performance by the pound? Would this week be more of the same – or would things go in the opposite direction?
An overview of the currency markets for October 7th– October 11th 2013
Let’s see where the British pound stood against the US dollar as the week got underway. The pound was worth 1.6050 at the beginning of the week, and there was some improvement on day one as the pound rose to 1.6086. The performance continued from there too as it rose further to 1.6111 the following day. However all good things come to an end and this certainly did – the exchange rate then dropped back and the pound finished the week on 1.5978. This meant the pound had lost ground overall.
But could it do any better against the Euro? The opening rate here was 1.1807 and this too rose over the first couple of days, taking the pound to 1.1867 in the process. After this the same thing happened as we’ve already seen – the pound lost steam and ended up going much lower in value, finally resting on 1.1778 by Friday night.
Next up let’s look at the pound’s position up against the Hong Kong dollar. Here the starting point was 12.446 and it rose steadily once more over the first two days of the week, closing Tuesday evening on 12.492. However the next couple of days saw a steady decrease, taking it to 12.372 by Thursday night. The pound did manage to fight back slightly the next day though, finishing Friday on 12.390.
Our next stop is with the New Zealand dollar. Here the pound started the week on a rate of 1.9324 and again had a good start, rising to 1.9431 after day one. However things went downhill from there on in, as the British pound slipped down to close Wednesday evening on 1.9221. It did put on a spurt of activity the following day that saw it rise to 1.9331 but after that it fell back again and ended up closing out the week on 1.9153.
So where would things end with the Australian dollar? Quite often this mirrors the New Zealand dollar – at least to some extent – so it would be interesting to see whether the same would happen this week. The pound opened on 1.7013 and improved to 1.7092 before once again dropping down in value. This was almost predictable as the pound fell back to 1.6893 on Wednesday evening. It did manage a weak comeback the following day by rising to 1.6915 but then it fell back to 1.6864 to finish the week on a disappointing note.
Notable events in the world of currency
Better news against the Canadian dollar
Here we saw the pound improve from 1.6580 to 1.6600 over the course of the week.
Another piece of good news against the Swiss franc
After all the bad news we gave you above, we have another good result here. The pound managed to go from 1.4489 to 1.4504 against the Swiss franc this week.
Three out of three
Here too we had more good news as the pound went from 194.128 to 195.113 against the Icelandic krona.
We’ve rarely seen this kind of turnaround with the pound, going from great results a couple of weeks ago to poor ones this week. However it could have been worse – the pound might have lost a lot of ground whereas in this case it ended up losing only a small amount. Perhaps next week it will be able to recover the losses it experienced against the other currencies, so it can get back to a healthier position. Make sure you come back next week so we can share the next results we have information on. This is the best place to keep abreast of the latest news and information on the British pound.