Welcome back – we hope you are ready for a slew of interesting results for the British pound on last week’s currency markets.
An overview of the currency markets for August 31st – September 4th 2015
Here we go then with a fresh look at the world of the currency markets as August gives way to September. The pound started out on 1.5391 on Monday morning and rose to 1.5415 that day. However it then slid over the next two days to arrive on 1.5273 on Wednesday evening. Despite a slight improvement to 1.5287 by Thursday evening, this was not enough to lead to a successful conclusion to the week. Instead the British pound slipped back to close on a rather disappointing 1.5226, somewhat lower than it had started with back on Monday.
Moving on now to the euro, the pound began trading on 1.3659 on Monday morning. The pattern here was similar to the one experienced against the dollar too, as there was a slight improvement to 1.3745 on Monday. However this was followed by two poorly-performing days that sent the pound back down to 1.3570. Things did change from that moment on though, as the pound managed to close out the week with two good days. This took it to a closing rate of 1.3670.
As things turned out, a similar pattern would come to fruition against the Hong Kong dollar too. With a rate of 11.928 to start on, the pound increased that to 11.947 before dropping back down to 11.836 by Wednesday evening. While there was a better performance on Thursday, taking the British pound to 11.848 as a result, this didn’t mean there would be a good ending. In fact the pound closed out the week significantly lower than it had started it – on 11.800.
Time for our fourth stop now, which takes us across to New Zealand. The pound traded on 2.3872 to begin with, and enjoyed a strong couple of days on Monday and Tuesday. This took it to 2.4220. However the strongest days were those two, as the final three days of the week brought nothing but disappointment. This meant we were back on 2.3893 by the time Friday came, although this was still slightly better than Monday’s opener had been.
Finally let’s see whether the pattern was repeated against the Australian dollar. We started on 2.1566 but then we went into four consecutive days of improvements. This meant that by Thursday evening the pound had improved to 2.1831. While we lost a little ground on Friday, sliding back to 2.1801 in the process, this still left us far better off than the rate we’d started with.
Notable events in the world of currency
A significant loss against the Canadian dollar
The pound didn’t do well at all here. It slipped from 2.0426 to a closing rate of 2.0144 this week.
An up-and-down affair against the Swiss franc
There were many ups and downs here last week, but it led to an overall improvement for the pound. It went from 1.4761 to 1.4817 overall.
A loss against the Icelandic krona
Once again the path was far from smooth for the British pound, as it slipped from 198.936 to 197.408 over the course of the week.
This was clearly anything but a straightforward week for the British pound. With numerous challenging days to contend with, it seemed as though any good results we had were virtually wiped out on other days. Of course you never know what might happen on the currency markets; the days can be very dramatic and uncertain, and this can potentially lead to some sticky situations.
All in all though, while the pound had some challenging days and losses this week, it coped with them relatively well. The losses could have been far worse than they were. In some cases the pound did enough early on in the week to absorb the challenges it met later on.
But would this be the case as September really got underway? We shall soon find out.