Welcome back to another overview of the currency markets. November has come to an end, but would the pound go into the final month of the year in good shape or bad shape? Let’s find out.
An overview of the currency markets for November 26th – November 30th 2012
So as the week began, the British pound was standing at 1.5935 against the US dollar. This immediately improved to 1.6005 by the end of the first day, but would it continue in the same vein? The following day brought another increase but then things started to look a little more uncertain. On the 28th the pound dropped to 1.5976 but then it managed to perk up again by the end of the week, to reach a healthier 1.6016.
Onto the Euro now and here the pound started on 1.2344. It had a good start to the week as it gradually gained a little throughout the first three days, ending on 1.2393 by Wednesday evening. But then it fell back again only to end the week on a more disappointing 1.2333, lower than it had begun with.
Moving on swiftly, let’s see if there was better news against the Hong Kong dollar. Here the pound started on 12.350 before moving up in value to 12.404 the next day. Did this foretell a good week ahead? Let’s see. The pound fell a little to get down to 12.382 on Wednesday night before perking up again and eventually ending the week on a better 12.412 – better than it had started on.
The fourth stop is the New Zealand dollar, where the pound was worth 1.9454 at the start of the week. This edged up slightly to 1.9470 the following day, but then things became a little more uncertain around the middle of the week. Fortunately things improved after that and by Friday evening the currency ended up closing on 1.9567 – the best rate of the week.
Finally we have the Australian dollar to focus on. Would the pound manage to get a good result here or would it fall down to close the week? It began the week on 1.5298 and there was some good news on that first day too, as the pound rose to 1.5329. It then fell back to 1.5309 and even dropped below the 1.53 rate initially before finding some extra energy to achieve a closing rate of 1.5384 to finish the week.
Notable events in the world of currency
A good result against the Canadian dollar
Here at least the news was good – the pound climbed from 1.5880 to 1.5915 over the week as a whole.
A small drop against the Swiss franc
The news wasn’t good everywhere though, as the pound went from 1.4874 to 1.4866 against the Swiss franc. At least the drop was only a small one.
Good news against the Chinese yuan
If you were looking into lots of currency conversions last week you would have noticed the pound improved from 9.9254 to 9.9776 against the Chinese yuan last week.
So there we have it – not a bad week for the British pound all in all. It wasn’t an excellent performance across the board and most of the improvements were small in size, but they were there. This was good news and it proved that the currency was doing a little better than it may have appeared to begin with.
The question now of course is whether the same will be said next week, or whether the pound will have more of a battle on its hands. We shall see of course, and we will be back to report on the initial currency conversions to take place in the first week of December. We’re getting closer to the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013, so how will the pound perform as we reach the end of the year? We’ll be back to find out more next week.