The Pound Sterling touched on its highest price in two weeks versus the US Dollar as expectations of a Conservative party win in Thursday’s general elections begin to gather momentum. The latest polls have the Conservative party taking the lead, with some by as many as 11 points, over the opposing Labour party, a margin sufficiently wide to assuage nervous jitters over the threat of a hung Parliament. One strategist said that with polls now tilted toward a Conservative party majority, uncertainty is ebbing.
As reported at 11:03 am (BST) in London, the GBP/USD was trading at $1.2912, a gain of 0.08%; earlier, the pair had hit a session peak at $1.29506 while the low was at $1.28928. Just a week ago, the pair had hit a trough of $1.2770. The EUR/GBP is trading at 0.8714 Pence, down 0.14% and off the session low of 0.86998 Pence.
RBA Stands Pat on Rates
In Australia, the Reserve Bank of Australia kept its benchmark lending rate at 1.5%, as forecast by economists polled. Analysts say that the RBA’s tone seems to be softening somewhat, given that recent data has disappointed. Wednesday’s GDP release for the first quarter has been downgraded by one economist who now sees a contraction of 0.5% (quarter-over-quarter) against an earlier forecast of expansion at 0.03%. The AUD/USD is currently trading at $0.7483, down 0.02%; earlier the pair had hit a session low of $0.74567 while the peak stands at $0.74972.