It’s been a busy week on the currency front as the British pound vies for a superior position against the other major currencies. Let’s take a look and see how this last complete week in May progressed.
An overview of the currency markets for May 21st – May 25th 2012
The last time we caught up with the British pound against the US dollar it was worth 1.5818. After one day of this new week the pound had dropped to 1.5789. Tuesday brought little change for the currency but there was a bigger drop on Wednesday and beyond. This led to a closing rate for the week of 1.5676.
Not the best start to the week for the pound then, but could it do better against the Euro? Here it began on a rate of 1.2434 and while it dropped to 1.2383 on Monday evening, there was better news in store later in the week. By the time the 23rd was done it had climbed back up to 1.2431 and there was better news still by Friday, when the pound closed on 1.2495.
Our third stop is Hong Kong, where the pound opened at 12.283 against the Hong Kong dollar. Unfortunately this turned out to be the best rate of the week and it was nothing but a downhill slide from that point on. At the close of the week the pound had slipped to 12.169.
The New Zealand dollar is our next stop and this would turn out to be an up and down week from the starting point of 2.0816. The pound was in better shape by Monday night when it claimed a rate of 2.0855, but it dropped back to 2.0729 the next day. Imagine the surprise then when the pound bounced back to 2.0973 just twenty four hours later. The disappointment at seeing the last rate of the week drop to 2.0695 was palpable after that.
Finally let’s check on the pound’s progress against the Australian dollar. Here we began on a rate of 1.6014 and this improved to 1.6060 by Monday night. But again we saw a drop to 1.5963 by Tuesday before the pound bounced back to 1.6132 by Wednesday evening. This would turn out to be the best rate we could achieve, before the pound fell back to close out the week on 1.6012.
Notable events in the world of currency
A slight improvement for the British pound versus the Canadian dollar
There was good news here as the pound climbed from 1.6089 to 1.6106 over the course of the week.
More good news against the Swiss franc
Here too there was a slight push in the right direction from the pound, as it went from 1.4936 to 1.5011 over the week.
A small improvement against the Indian rupee as well
Here too we had good news to celebrate as the pound climbed from 86.157 to 86.862.
Again this week we saw the outcome of the situation in Europe as news of the tumbling Euro was reported across the web, including on the Bloomberg site. We can undoubtedly see other similar news stories hitting the headlines in future days and perhaps weeks as well, as no end seems to be in sight for the sliding currency.
So the pound has performed well in some places but not as well in others this week. Perhaps we can hope for a more stable performance next week, but it is difficult to say whether this will be the case or not. The seesaw results achieved by the pound against some currencies were cause for concern this week, so perhaps a more stable outcome would be preferable.
In any case we shall be back soon with another round up of the week’s most important results on the currency markets. Make sure you don’t miss out on the best and most important news for the British pound, right here.