Back on the last day of November the British pound was worth 12.772 Hong Kong dollars. But could it improve on this and do even better during December?
It certainly kicked off the month in the right way as it managed to up its rate to 12.839 on the first day. And since the week as a whole finished off with an even better exchange rate of 12.906 on the currency converter, it was clearly going to be an interesting battle to watch.
Unfortunately the 7th December was not destined to be a good day for the British pound. After starting the day on such a high note it was crushing to see a closing exchange rate of 12.662 on the cards. What would happen next? Would the pound regain its strength or was this an ominous sign of worse things to come?
It turned out to be a bit of a wishy washy week all in all, with nothing very spectacular happening the rest of the time. By the end of the week the pound had finished on 12.635, so we clearly had some work still to do if we wanted to remember this final month of 2009 for a good reason.
But the negative pattern seemed to have been set and on Tuesday of the following week the exchange rate fell back to 12.582. It got back above the 12.600 mark the next day but it wasn’t destined to stay there for very long. With the week finishing up with a rate of 12.537 for the British pound it was clear that this could end up being a disappointing month for the currency. The Hong Kong dollar certainly had the upper hand so far.
The first day of Christmas week saw the pound fall back to 12.492, and the very next day that horrible figure got worse still with a lower rate of 12.400. A dip below this seemed to be on the cards next, and it didn’t take long to be proved right. On the 23rd December the British pound could only muster up an exchange rate of 12.372, and although it pulled its socks up and crawled back up to 12.393 before the Christmas break got underway it clearly wasn’t good.
But there was a little bit left in this story yet. The first day back after Christmas didn’t provide much of a change as the pound rested on 12.392 at the close of play. But the following day looked a bit more promising with 12.400 recorded at the close of trading.
So a figure of 12.299 on the 30th came as something of a surprise all in all. Not as much as the final figure of the year though, which after all the lows and dramas so far really capped off an up and down month. A closing rate of 12.578 on New Year’s Eve meant the pound had only lost 0.194 over the month. It was enough, but it could have been a lot worse.