Pound advances on house prices report

Pound advances on house prices report

Story link: Pound advances on house prices report

TAGS:

The pound saw gains Wednesday as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported that fewer real estate agents said in March that house prices were down than reported lower prices in February.

That new report built on news from the Bank of England at the end of last month that mortgage approvals were up in February and on a Nationwide Building Society report issued at the beginning of April that house prices were up in the UK in March for the first time in a year and a half.

The pound traded at 87.94p to the euro in late morning trade in New York, while it took $1.4981 to buy a pound after the UK currency earlier traded above $1.50 for the first time since January.

At the same time, the yen traded down at ¥148.8315 to the pound.

Meanwhile, the US dollar advanced on demand as a safe haven after the Federal Reserve reported that US industrial output dropped by 1.5 percent in March, more of a decline than had been expected and an indication that rough times for the US economy are not over yet.

The dollar traded at $1.3175 to the euro while it took ¥99.3450 to buy a greenback.

At the same time, the Japanese currency traded at ¥130.8893 to the euro.