Pound Higher As MPs Vote On EU Withdrawal Bill; BoE Awaited
September 11 2017 - 5:41AM
RTTF2
The pound strengthened against its key counterparts in the
European session on Monday, as investors focus on a key vote on the
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill in the U.K. Parliament as well as
on hopes the Bank of England may sound more hawkish on interest
rates when it meets on Thursday.
The U.K. lawmakers are debating the bill in the House of Commons
with a vote due later. The legislation is aimed at transferring
European Union legislation into U.K. law on the day the country
leaves the bloc in March 2019.
Brexit Secretary David Davis said "a vote against this bill is a
vote for a chaotic exit from the European Union."
The BoE is widely expected to keep bank rate and asset purchase
target unchanged at the meeting. Traders will watch the vote split
for any signs of hawkish outcome on the committee.
Further underpinning the currency was risk appetite, as fears
about hurricane Irma have waned and North Korea refrained from
launching more missiles at the weekend despite speculation that it
would do so.
The pound showed mixed performance in the Asian session. While
the currency rose against the franc and the yen, it fell against
the greenback and the euro.
Reversing from an early low of 1.3168 against the dollar, the
pound edged up to 1.3222. If the pound extends rise, 1.34 is likely
seen as its next resistance level.
The pound advanced to near a 5-week high of 143.68 against the
yen, after having fallen to 142.52 at 5:00 pm ET. Continuation of
the pound's uptrend may see it challenging resistance around the
145.00 region.
Data from the Bank of Japan showed that Japan's M2 money stock
rose 4.0 percent on year in August, coming in at 978.0 trillion
yen.
That was unchanged from the July reading, although it was shy of
estimates for a gain of 4.1 percent.
The pound spiked up to near 4-week highs of 1.2577 versus the
Swiss franc and 0.9076 versus the euro, off its early lows of
1.2477 and 0.9122, respectively. The next possible resistance for
the pound is seen around 1.27 against the franc and 0.89 against
the euro.
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