Sterling had a relatively quiet day against the Euro yesterday staying pretty stable throughout the day on a thin day for data. Below I have outlined the major movers and potential reasons as to why the currencies moved as they did.
GBP – USD
The U.S released weaker than expected Consumer Confidence data during yesterday afternoon which would usually mean a weakened U.S Dollar, however by market close Sterling had lost 0.39% against the Greenback, possibly due to the worry of the Bank of England potentially introducing further Quantitative easing and banking stocks continuing to stay low.
GBP – AUD
Sterling had a mixed day yesterday, with movement against the Australian Dollar being a loss of 0.66% . This was following comments by the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia suggesting that the interest rates may be hiked in the near future over there. As regular readers may know an interest hike usually brings strength to the currency concerned, as investors look to shift funds over to that particular currency in order to receive a better return.
GBP – ZAR
Sterling started off the day losing ground against the South African Rand being approximately 0.6% down in early morning trading, only to do a complete turnaround by market close ending the day up by 0.85% which may be down to carry trading as no major data releases were due from South Africa.
As I’m sure you can imagine this would make a huge difference on the cost of sending money to South Africa. A purchase of ZAR1,000,000 would cost over £1000 less had you caught the rate at the right time yesterday.
This is where we come in – Upon opening an account with Foreign Currency Direct you are allocated a dedicated account manager who will happily tailor their assistance to your needs. If you either require daily updates on market movements or to be made aware of any upcoming data that may affect your transfer then you account manager will keep in touch regularly.
House prices rise for first time since Jan 2008
Yesterday saw one positive release from the land registry confirming that house prices had officially risen month on month for the first time since January 2008. Although the 0.1% increase is obviously better news than we have seen on the housing price side of things for a while, it merely shows that prices seem to be flattening out at present and a recovery appears to still be quite far away.
Prices are now sat at 14% less than records show for the same month last year and the survey generally compares the prices of homes sold now compared with the price paid for properties last year.
Although in general the release is still better news for the U.K and indeed the Pound, Sterling still struggled to make any major gains throughout the course of the trading day – a similar pattern to that of last week where although we saw very positive retail sales and mortgage approval releases Sterling still failed to make major gains.
This is slightly worrying for anyone needing to send money overseas in the near future, as if the Pound can’t make gains off the back of positive data then just what will happen next time we see a negative release??
During this mixed period for Sterling it is imperative you are in a position to act fast and be able to book a rate off the back of one phone call. In order to find yourself in this position click here to open a trading facility which is completely free and carries no obligation to trade. Upon doing this you will be allocated a personal and friendly account manager who can keep you up to date with market movements alongside making you aware of any excellent buying opportunities throughout the day.
Today’s Data
Today is extremely thin on the ground data wise, with a few U.S releases at 13:30pm, which aren’t expected to have much influence on the markets. On days such as today smaller announcements tend to have larger effects on the value of a currency so it may be prudent to contact your account manager first thing this morning and make them aware should you be looking to transfer funds in the near future.
This is a brief summary of todays report. Click here to read the full report on our main website
If you are buying a property abroad, and want the best exchange rates, just click on the links below to go straight to our main site, or Email Me
Have a great day and thanks for reading!
Daniel Wright
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