LONDON, Aug 27: The British pound gained against the dollar by late European trade on Tuesday after disappointing US consumer confidence figures pressured the greenback across the board.
Sterling rose half a per cent to $1.5290 coming off last week’s seven-week low of $1.5158. With little in the way of domestic economic news due out this week, the pound was seen caught between other major currencies at least until next week’s Bank of England interest rate decision.
Last week was the big week with data in the UK and with the calendar relatively quiet this week it’s largely at the mercy of that interplay between the euro and the dollar, said Stacey Seltzer, foreign exchange analyst with Brown Brothers Harriman.
The pound was off a quarter of a percent against the euro at 64.01 pence.
Bank of England Governor Sir Edward George’s speech on Thursday to the Pakistani Bankers’ Association Annual Dinner in London is one of the few events seen likely to move the pound independently this week.
Analysts will be watching for comments on how much the British economy is slowing after second quarter economic growth was revised down sharply last week to 0.6 per cent from an initial 0.9 per cent.
It’s likely that he’ll give a reasonably optimistic outlook given that policy makers around the world have been trying to maintain confidence in financial markets, Jake Moore, currency strategist at Barclays Capital.
TOKYO: The dollar fell against the yen on Tuesday in jittery trade ahead of the release of key economic data this week, although a slump in Japanese share prices offered slight support, dealers said.
The greenback traded at 119.04-07 yen compared with 119.71-74 yen in both New York and Tokyo late Monday.
Meanwhile, the euro bought $0.9736-39 compared with $0.9716-19 in New York and $0.9700-03 in Tokyo late Monday.
Against the yen, the euro was quoted at 115.93, compared with 116.38 in New York and 116.18 in Tokyo Monday afternoon.
The dollar was expected to strengthen against the euro in the near term, DBS Bank said in Singapore.
Current market sentiment favours the dollar, given market expectations that the US, relative to Euroland and Japan, will be the first to recover from the global synchronised downturn, the bank said.
This means that the dollar is likely to see more gains in the coming few trading sessions.
In late Singapore trade, the dollar was up against the Taiwan dollar at 34.243 from 34.226 on Monday.
The greenback fell to 1,199.90 South Korean won from 1,205.5, 42.2649 Thai baht from 42.285, 52.135 Philippine pesos from 52.2925, 1.7553 Singapore dollars from 1.7591, and 8,915 Indonesian rupiah from 8,920.
—Reuters/AFP