Welcome to another currency report, focusing on whether the British pound had a good week against a variety of major currencies last week. Let’s dive right in and get the answers we need.
An overview of the currency markets for September 9th– September 13th 2013
So as the week began the British pound was standing at 1.5578 against the US dollar. We had a healthy start as the pound rose to 1.5682 by Monday evening. However a good start does not necessarily mean a good finish. Would Friday 13th turn out to be an ominous end for the pound? Actually the answer was no, because the pound managed to improve throughout the week as far as its standing against the US dollar was concerned. By the time it closed out the week on Friday evening, it had soared to an impressive 1.5829.
With that good result under our belt, could we hope to achieve something similar against the Euro? We began with a rate of 1.1876 here, which then perked up slightly to 1.1886 on Monday. We then dipped on Tuesday, although it was only by a small amount. Fortunately from that point on the only way the pound went was up, and once again we finished with a healthy result – this time it was a closing rate of 1.1906 that had us interested.
Now we are going for three out of three as we look to the Hong Kong dollar to see what the pound could achieve there. The opening rate was 12.082 and the week began well as the pound rose to finish the day on 12.162. Once again the week became beautifully predictable as the British pound managed to finish on a rate of 12.274 on Friday evening. Perhaps not quite as healthy as the rate it had enjoyed against the US dollar, but it was a good result nonetheless.
Our fourth stop is with the New Zealand dollar, but even though we have achieved three good results so far, the New Zealand and Australian dollars have a habit of providing some very different results. It would turn out to be the case here as well, as the New Zealand dollar got the better of the British pound throughout the week. We began with a rate of 1.9602 against the Kiwi dollar, but from here we sank to 1.9473 by Tuesday evening. We recovered to 1.9570 the following day but from there we weakened again throughout the rest of the week. This sent us down to 1.9434 by the week’s end.
Finally let’s see whether we would lose ground against the Australian dollar as well. The opening rate was 1.6994 and we actually bucked the trend by rising to 1.7042 by Monday evening. We did drop back to 1.6893 the following day, but this would turn out to be the lowest rate we would reach the entire week. Indeed by the time Friday evening arrived we had reached an exchange rate of 1.7121, giving us a good end to a reasonably good week.
Notable events in the world of currency
Another good result against the Canadian dollar
Here the British pound went from 1.6249 to 1.6357 during the week.
A marginal improvement against the Swiss franc
The change was not as big here but we did still see some good results. The British pound started on 1.4705 and finished higher on 1.4735.
Another improvement against the Icelandic krona
Here the pound managed to take an opening rate of 188.327 and improve it to 191.681 instead.
So all in all it was an excellent week for the pound last week. We had a few sticky moments and a poor showing against the New Zealand dollar but apart from that it was quite a healthy show all round. Perhaps next week will see more of the same, but it could equally be a disappointing performance. We shall be here either way to report back on the results for you.