Welcome to the latest in our series of currency reports concerning the British pound. Will this be a positive report? Read on and find out.
An overview of the currency markets for August 20th – August 24th, 2018
The British pound stood at 1.2716 on Monday, before enjoying a three-day rise against the US dollar. This was encouraging given the hard time we had experienced against this same currency in recent weeks. It also meant the pound achieved a closing rate of 1.2917 by the time Wednesday evening rolled around – two cents higher than it had started the week with. While the last two days each posted a loss against the dollar, the pound did not lose all the gains it had made until that point. Instead, it closed the week on a healthier 1.2847.
The opening rate against the euro was 1.1163 at the start of the week. We had a good start here too, climbing to 1.1175 on day one. However, the next two days were anything but positive. The pound slipped to 1.1120 by Wednesday evening. We were therefore faced with a very different picture to the one we’d seen against the dollar. While the pound did recover to 1.1126 on Thursday, it then fell to 1.1086 by Friday night. That equated to an overall loss for the week.
The disappointment of the bad news against the euro was replaced by good news against the Hong Kong dollar. This would follow the path already laid down against the US dollar. We began trading on 9.9818 before posting three good days’ worth of results. This took the pound to 10.139 by Wednesday evening. We did see the same two days of drops to end the week though. While that was disappointing, we did manage to stall the losses at 10.084 by Friday night.
The pattern is always different against the New Zealand dollar, and that was borne out this week as well. Beginning with a rate of 1.9262, the pound rose to 1.9284 by the close of play on Monday. It then dropped to 1.9256 the following day. All small changes thus far. However, the next two days were better, with the pound finishing on 1.9306 on Thursday. While it dropped to 1.9272 on Friday, this was still marginally better than it had begun on.
We saw a very different picture against the Australian dollar too. Opening here on 1.7493, the pound had two days of losses to contend with. This took it to 1.7447 on Tuesday night. While that was hardly encouraging, we then had two better days to move things in the right direction. This meant the pound ended up on 1.7677 by Thursday night. It did dip to 1.7592 on Friday, but it still posted a success for the week.
Notable events in the world of currency
Encouraging news against the Canadian dollar
The pound managed to push ahead from 1.6718 to 1.6788 this week, approaching almost a cent better off as a result.
Meanwhile, we saw a drop against the Swiss franc
Unfortunately, things did not go the way of the British pound when the Swiss franc was trading against it. The pound got underway on 1.2657 before dropping to 1.2636.
Better news against the Icelandic krona though
Fortunately, we were able to secure a good result against the krona this week. From our starting rate of 137.091, we were able to move up to 138.580 by Friday evening.
While we cannot claim this to be a week of outstanding success, we can claim to have had better results than we’ve had just recently. Among a sea of poor results lately, anything of a more positive nature is good news. The pound has managed to do well this week, by and large. We can but hope a similar picture might emerge next week as well. Will it happen? It remains to be seen, but things may just be starting to look up for the pound.