Welcome back to another report, which this time demonstrates how easy it is for the pound to do well in some areas but not as well in others.
An overview of the currency markets for August 17th – August 21st 2015
The week got underway with the British pound standing at 1.5634 against the US dollar. Day one didn’t go our way, as the pound drifted back to 1.5622. We made up for it the following day though as we headed back to 1.5705. Unfortunately, even though we had two more improvements out of the three days remaining, the one bad day took us back down to a much lower level. This meant we finished on 1.5672 for the week – only slightly higher than where we’d started.
Over in Europe the pound was worth 1.3995 against the euro to begin the week. We had two very good days to begin though, taking us to 1.4200 by Tuesday evening. This would be the best news of the week though, because after that the pound started to lose ground. In fact by the time Friday evening arrived, the pound had slipped back to 1.3892 – very disappointing given the earlier rise.
We started on 12.125 against the Hong Kong dollar and dropped to 12.114 on Monday evening. Tuesday was better though as the pound rose to 12.178. While we had a drop on Wednesday, the last two days of the week definitely went our way. Indeed, by the time we reached the end of the week the British pound had managed to achieve a closing rate of 12.147 – rather better than it had started with.
Over to New Zealand now, and the British pound was worth 2.3839 Kiwi dollars as the week got underway. A slight loss on day one gave way to better news on day two, as the pound reached 2.3856 that day. However from that moment on there was only bad news for the pound. By the time the week was done with, it had slipped all the way back to 2.3528. This meant it had lost out on more than three cents across the week in total.
Finally we should pay a visit to Australia to see whether the pound would have an equally bad result there. We opened proceedings on 2.1164 but instead of slipping back we had two good days to start with. This meant we ended Tuesday’s trading on 2.1393. Although we had some ups and downs from that moment on, we still managed to get a good result overall for the week. The pound finished up with a rate of 2.1372 overall.
Notable events in the world of currency
A significant drop against the Swiss franc
Anyone hoping for a good result here would be disappointed. Instead we opened Monday’s trading on 1.5220 and ended the week on 1.4955.
Better news against the Canadian dollar
Here at least the pound did better, rising from an opening rate of 2.0393 and finishing on 2.0543.
But another fall against the Icelandic krona
We didn’t do very well against the krona this week. We began on 205.267 and finished up with an exchange rate of 203.801 on Friday evening.
So all in all it really was a mixed bag of results. However while it was disappointing to see the pound losing ground in some areas, it is perhaps unrealistic to expect good results everywhere each week. This simply will not happen – and certainly, no other currency would be expected to perform on that level at all times.
We have seen the pound do well in previous weeks, but you could say this would be an average week on the whole. Perhaps we will have better all-round news to bring you next week, but it remains to be seen whether that could happen. We have had some good weeks overall recently, so perhaps we are due for a more disappointing picture.
On that sobering note, we will leave you to consider this week’s results and look forward to next week’s ones.