Welcome back to another currency report, where we are hoping for a good performance from the British pound to carry us through another week. Whether or not it actually happens remains to be seen, so let’s find out how things progress, shall we?
An overview of the currency markets for April 8th – April 12th 2013
Here we are then at the beginning of a brand new week. To begin with the British pound was listed at 1.5244 against the US dollar, and this soon increased to 1.5304 at the end of the first day. After such a good start, could we keep it up for the rest of the week? We crept up slightly on Tuesday before dropping back a little again, and then we finished Thursday evening on a much improved rate of 1.5397. Friday ended on a lower note – achieving 1.5360 in the process – but this was still much better than the opening rate on Monday morning.
Let’s see whether we could repeat this against the Euro now. The opening rate was 1.1777 but this fell to 1.1751 on day one. As it turned out it was the beginning of a poor performance by the pound, dropping to a low point of 1.1698 on the 10th. Things improved from then on though, as the pound rose to close out the week on 1.1768. This was still lower than the rate we had started out with though.
Our third stop is with the Hong Kong dollar, where the opening rate was 11.838. We immediately had some improvements over the first couple of days that saw us close Tuesday on 11.887. We dropped back a little on Wednesday but after that the only way appeared to be up for the pound, as we finished on 11.922 on Friday evening.
Next it’s on to the New Zealand dollar, and here the pound began the week on 1.8146. However whereas the pound had achieved reasonably good results elsewhere so far this week, the same would not be true of the New Zealand dollar. Here the pound dropped continually through the first four days, reaching a disappointing low of 1.7769 on Thursday evening. It recouped a little of its losses on Friday, finishing on 1.7867 as a result, but this was not enough to claw back all the losses.
Finally we need to look at the Australian dollar. The initial rate in play here was 1.4633 and this too seemed to follow roughly the same pattern we’d seen against the New Zealand dollar. The pound soon started dropping against the Aussie dollar, until it reached a low point of 1.4540 on Wednesday. Then it began rising again, stalling on 1.4588 by Friday night.
Notable events in the world of currency
A small increase against the Canadian dollar
Here the pound managed to edge up slightly from 1.5468 to 1.5543 over the course of the week.
A marginal increase against the Swiss franc as well
The increase could not have been smaller here, as the pound crept up from 1.4318 to 1.4319 during the week.
But a drop took place against the Icelandic krona
Here the pound managed to fall over the course of the week, dropping from 184.294 to 182.581 in the process.
So there was good news and bad news for the pound this week, as it did well against some currencies but not as well against others. We often see a mixed bag of results but there were at least some that were encouraging this time around. It remains to be seen how the British pound moves on from here, since it is still looking to increase its value against a number of other currencies. However, we can hope to see better results against some currencies next week, and more improvements against the ones it did well against this time around. We shall be here to report back as always, so join us next week.