British Pound Sterling: Currency finds GfK consumer confidence data of no use, holds onto gains vs EUR

Last Updated on Tuesday, 31 January 2012 10:49 Written by Sam Coventry Tuesday, 31 January 2012 10:47

This morning the pound euro pair continues to be driven by events in the eurozone as domestic UK data fails to make an impact.

---

British Pound Sterling (GBP) in US Dollar (USD): GBPUSD is 0.37% higher at 1.5770.

British Pound Sterling (GBP) in Euro (EUR): GBPEUR is 0.01% higher at 1.1959.

British Pound Sterling (GBP) in Australian Dollar (AUD): GBPAUD is 0.22% lower at 1.4784.

This morning, the UK GfK consumer confidence came out better than expected at -29, from -33 in December.

---

Advertisement - Article Continues Below

---

"However, the release was no support for sterling. On the contrary, EURGBP followed the rebound in the headline EURUSD pair," says a morning currency note from KBC Markets.

That said, the pound euro rate has been able to hold onto the gains made yesterday.

"On Monday, EURGBP joined the broader setback of the euro. There was no specific reason. The news flow from Europe was not positive enough to push the pair beyond key resistance levels. Global sentiment on risk turning less cautious was also no help for the single currency," say KBC Markets.

EURGBP came within striking distance of the key 0.8422 resistance on Friday evening. However, a real attack didn’t occur. The pair traded in the 0.8350 area at the open in Europe.

From the UK, there was no news to guide the price action, putting the focus on the EMU.

Euro investors were slightly disappointed that there was no Greek PSI deal.

This triggered a reversal of the remarkable rally of the euro late on Friday.

EUR/GBP reached an intraday low at 0.8351 late in Europe.

From there some consolidation kicked in. Later in the session, the rebound in EURGBP
was less pronounced compared to what happened in EURUSD.

EURGBP closed the day at 0.8366, compared to 0.8405 on Friday.