It’s back to the currency markets again this week with another look at how the British pound has performed against other major currencies. Will it give us news to celebrate – or not?
An overview of the currency markets for June 25th – June 29th 2012
The opening rate against the US dollar was 1.5591 and the opening salvo on Monday saw the pound drop to 1.5554. Things were looking up the next day though as the pound rose to 1.5601. It was a seesaw week though as the next couple of days saw weaker results for the pound. The good news however was that the week would end on a good note – 1.5604 to be exact.
The question now was whether we would have an equally good result against the Euro. This has been a surprising result in the past, as despite the weakness in the Eurozone the pound has been unable to really capitalise on it to a great degree. We started this particular week on 1.2434 and two days later closed out the day on 1.2506. Despite a drop the following day we then peaked at 1.2517 to close Thursday evening. However we then fell back to a disappointing 1.2394 to finish the week – the worst rate we’d had.
So could we do better against the Hong Kong dollar? As it turned out the pattern here was very similar to the one we had seen against the US dollar, with an up and down rate of exchange changing all the time. We started on 12.100, dipped to 12.070 the next day, went up to 12.106 the day after and so on. By the end of the week we were on 12.104.
The next stop on the list is New Zealand, where we were starting on 1.9769. Although we rose to 1.9780 the following day it didn’t seem likely we would do better and finish over 2.00 by the end of the week. Indeed we dropped back to 1.9688 on Thursday and fell further to 1.9516 by Friday, indicating how much the pound was struggling here at the moment.
Our last stop for the week is Australia. The opening rate was 1.5530 and it soon became clear that the pound’s performance this week could be a disappointment too. It dropped to 1.5544 by Monday night and never really reclaimed any exchange rates of note. In fact it dropped further to 1.5293 by the time the week was over.
Notable events in the world of currency
Another poor showing against the Canadian dollar
It should not come as a surprise after the results given above, but the pound dropped from 1.6032 to 1.5953 against the Canadian dollar. It could have been worse however.
A marginal drop against the Swiss franc
From a start of 1.4932 the pound actually went as high as 1.5034 during the week, but it finished off by falling back to 1.4910.
Another fall against the Indian rupee
There was little to celebrate here either last week, as the pound dropped from 89.110 to 86.911.
As you might imagine, with this range of results to focus on this week, there were plenty of news stories and reports that shed more light on the goings on surrounding the British pound. In this report from the Reuters website – we found out more about the reasons behind the performance of the pound over several days. It just goes to show how many specific things can affect the pound.
So it has not been the best week for the currency, and indeed it makes you wonder whether the coming week will be any better. It would not be good to be pessimistic so let’s hope we have better news to bring next time. But until we come back next week with a fresh report, there is no way of telling. We’ll see you then.
I know you say we can’t get good results every week, but I’d have thought we’d get decent ones every now and then. I suppose it will be a good few years yet before the economy picks itself up and gets us back on track. I wonder where on earth we’ll be by then?