Exchange Rates Today: Pound Sterling Gains vs Euro and Swiss Franc, Limited Adances vs Aus and NZ Dollar

December 19, 2014 - Written by John Cameron

STORY LINK Exchange Rates Today: Pound Sterling Gains vs Euro and Swiss Franc, Limited Adances vs Aus and NZ Dollar

Currency News UK Brings You Our Latest Global Exchange Rate Forecast and Analysis

The overriding theme of yesterday’s session was the return of appetite for risk to the global markets.

The end of the flight to safety which had seen share markets tumble during this week’s session was triggered by the actions of the world’s premier central bank and by the comments of one notable policymaker.

Although the statement accompanying Wednesday evening’s US Federal Reserve policy announcement pointedly dropped its ‘considerable time’ description of the time period during which US interest rates would remain low, investors remained sanguine. The reason for this was the American policymakers description of how they will be ‘patient’ in the timing of their decision on when to hike interest rates. The markets took this as a coded signal that America’s ‘easy money’ monetary policy stance will continue for many months to come.

Meanwhile, Russian Premier Vladimir Putin has triggered more than one bout of all-out panic amongst investors during the past twelve months, however yesterday brought a pronounced change of tack from the Russian leader. Putin laid the blame for the recent collapse in the value of the Rouble down to ‘external factors’ and went on to reassure the markets that the Russian tender will stabilise soon.

Investors appeared convinced by what Putin had to say, based on intraday movement for the closely-monitored VIX index. The fear gauge topped out at 24.61 during early trading yesterday, but by the initial stages of today’s trading, the pair had dropped to close to the 16.00 threshold. The drop, predictably enough, was accompanied by a strong forward move for global equities; London’s FTSE 100 gained an impressive 2.04% on the day, while the euroland’s leading bourses also traded into positive territory with Frankfurt’s Dax jumping by a heady 2.79% and Paris’ Cac 40 closing up by a dizzying 3.35%. Meanwhile, Moscow’s headline MICEX index spiralled by 4.49%.

The Pound Sterling (currency:GBP) recorded strong gains versus the euro (currency:EUR) and the Swiss Franc (currency:CHF) on the session; however, the UK unit’s improvement against the high yielding Australian Dollar (currency:AUD) and New Zealand Dollar (currency:NZD) were limited by the generalised improvement in risk sentiment.

Pound Sterling Exchange Rates Today

The Pound to Australian Dollar exchange rate converts +0.01 per cent higher at 1 GBP is 1.91812 AUD.
The Pound to Canadian Dollar conversion rate is -0.03 pct lower at 1.81460 GBP/CAD.
The Pound to Euro exchange rate is +0.09 pct higher with a conversion rate of 1 GBP equals 1.27613 EUR.
The Pound to New Zealand Dollar exchange rate is +0.14 pct higher with a conversion rate of 1 GBP equals 2.01644 NZD.
The Pound to US Dollar conversion rate is -0.11 pct lower at 1.56500 GBP/USD.

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