Good Results and Bad for the British Pound

Welcome to our latest currency report, where we see how April progressed for the British pound last week.

An overview of the currency markets for April 11th – April 15th 2016

As the week began, the British pound stood at 1.4075 against the US dollar. The good news came early, too, as the first two days went well for us. By Tuesday evening, the pound had improved to 1.4273. The big question was whether we had peaked too early, and judging by the next two days, that was a big possibility. By Thursday evening, the pound had dropped back to 1.4142. With just one day left, what would happen next? Fortunately for the pound, things tipped back in our favour, which left us with a closing rate of 1.4180 this week.

Our second stop is in Europe, with the head-to-head against the euro to look into. Could the pound do well here too? We began with a rate of 1.2386 and here we actually had three good days to kick off the week with. This meant that we had improved to 1.2596 by Wednesday evening. However, with two days still to go, would we manage to hang onto a good rate by Friday night? The final two days did see a drop for the pound, but the euro was still the weaker of the two currencies. This meant the pound ended up on 1.2566 on Friday – better than it had begun with.

Next, we move on to the Hong Kong dollar. Here, the week began in much the same fashion it had against the US dollar. We began on 10.921 before doing very well over the space of two days. This left us on 11.039 on Wednesday, before dipping in form over the next two days. The pattern here was following the one we’d seen against the US dollar exactly. By Thursday night, the pound was down to 10.970, but it managed to move up again on Friday to close trading for the week on 10.999.

Our fourth stop is with the New Zealand dollar, but as we now know, things can be very different with this particular dollar currency. Our opening rate against the Kiwi dollar was 2.0756, and we had one good day here to start things off this week. By Monday evening, the pound was on 2.0820. Unfortunately, the following two days were not good at all. We dipped back to just 2.0578 on Wednesday night. How would the remaining two days pan out? Thursday was good, climbing to 2.0607, but Friday left the pound on 2.0526, which meant the currency was left significantly lower than the level it had been at on Monday morning.

Would the pound’s performance against the Australian dollar pan out the same way though? Here, the British pound got started on 1.8693 before perking up to a day-closing rate of 1.8810. The next three days were far from good, leaving the pound struggling on 1.8363 by Thursday evening. Even a slight improvement to 1.8407 on Friday was not enough to regain the opening rate.

Notable events in the world of currency

A drop for the pound versus the Canadian dollar

The pound didn’t do well here, falling from 1.8408 to 1.8265 this week.

A much better result against the Swiss franc

This was an excellent result, as the pound moved up from its starting rate of 1.3469 and finished the week in good form on 1.3721.

Another piece of good news against the Icelandic krona

Here, the pound began the week on 174.295, before pressing ahead and finishing in better shape on 176.066.

So we can see the British pound managed some impressive results last week. There were some good outcomes in some places, while the pound didn’t do as well in other parts of the world. Still, for a mixed week, the good results certainly were good, with significant improvements made in some quarters.

Will next week be as encouraging, or will there be a different story to tell? We shall be back to find out.