British Pound Sterling: Currency in 10-week high vs USD while falls vs EUR continue despite strong manufacturing PMI

Last Updated on Wednesday, 01 February 2012 10:27 Written by Sam Coventry Wednesday, 01 February 2012 10:25

Also boosting the pound sterling is news that UK manufacturing kicked back into life in January.

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British Pound Sterling (GBP) in US Dollar (USD): GBPUSD is unchanged at 1.5757.

British Pound Sterling (GBP) in Euro (EUR): GBPEUR is 0.45% lower on the day at 1.1988.

British Pound Sterling (GBP) in Australian Dollar (AUD): GBPAUD is 0.42% lower at 1.4768.

The British pound strengthened to a 10-week high against the US dollar in Asian trade, as optimism that European leaders are moving closer toward resolving the region’s debt crisis reduced demand for the relative safety of the greenback.

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Also supporting the pound sterling further this morning is news that UK manufacturing kicked back into life in January.

UK PMI Manufacturing increased to 52.1 points in January, following 49.7 points in December, according to data released today by Markit.

Analysts expected the indicator to continue contracting at 49.8 points.

This follows news that Chinese PMI also bet consensus PMIs; news that set the risk-positive tone for the day which has allowed the pound to advance against the US dollar.

Yesterday it was not all good news, UK December mortgage approvals disappointed, at 52.9k vs expectations of 54.0.

UBS notes that the data is unlikely to have a major impact on the MPC decision.

More interesting was the M4, a measure of money supply watched by the MPC. The 3m annualised rate fell from 3.2% to -0.8%.