It’s time for yet another report on the currency markets, and the latest position of the British pound. Let’s find out how things went last week.
An overview of the currency markets for April 13th – April 17th 2015
Here we are then with a British pound worth 1.4591 as the week began. Could we do better than we had last week? The early signs were good as the first two days both produced good results, taking the pound to 1.4637 against the US dollar. As it turned out, they would be only the beginning of a very good week for the pound. Every single day saw an improvement against the dollar and by the time Friday night rolled around the British pound was higher than ever on 1.5021. This represented a rise of well over four cents over the week as a whole.
So would it manage to do just as well in Europe against the euro? Here it began the week on 1.3804 and the first day was indeed a good one as the pound finished it on 1.3860. It dipped the following day but it was only a minor loss. In fact it soon became clear that the week as a whole was going to be full of ups and downs here. It was then a question of how far up or down the pound would go. The final analysis proved the pound ended the week on 0.3890 – and that meant it was better off than it had been at the week’s start.
Onto the Hong Kong dollar now where the pound started out with a rate of 11.308. Thankfully there were no ups and downs at all here – instead the pound set off on a positive route through the week, just as it had against the US dollar. Here the pound managed to rise to 11.334 on day one, and it actually finished up with a rate of 11.643 by Friday night. This equated to a gain of 0.335 for the entire week.
Over in New Zealand the pound had begun the new week on 1.9407. It immediately climbed to 1.9663 on day one and while it lost a little the following day, it was back up to 1.9676 the day after. Unfortunately the last two days only saw the pound losing some of the ground it had gained. However it still finished on 1.9481 overall, which was still better than Monday’s opening rate had been.
Finally it’s the turn of the Australian dollar to go up against the British pound. The pound opened proceedings on 1.9083 and immediately shot up to 1.9300 by the end of Monday evening. This was a great start but would it be enough? We had another couple of good days anyway, which meant that by Wednesday evening the pound was standing on 1.9454. Unfortunately we lost a lot of ground over the final two days of the week. By Friday night the pound had stalled on 1.9227, but this was markedly better than it had started the week on.
Notable events in the world of currency
A drop against the Canadian dollar
Here the pound didn’t do well, falling from 1.8478 to close the week on 1.8312.
Another slight drop, this time against the Swiss franc
Here too there was bad news as the pound started on 1.4342 and fell to 1.4303.
A slight rise against the Icelandic krona
Fortunately there was marginally better news here, as the pound rose from 202.502 to 202.675 as the week came to an end.
So we can see there was plenty of drama to be had this week as the pound did better in some quarters than in others. Perhaps we should be grateful for the good results the pound did manage to achieve, especially when compared to the results we have seen elsewhere in previous weeks. The election is getting ever closer and that means many are nervous of how the pound might react. We shall see what actually happens over the next two or three weeks.