AGL 40.08 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (0.2%)
AIRLINK 129.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.53 (-0.41%)
BOP 6.69 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.15%)
CNERGY 4.45 Decreased By ▼ -0.18 (-3.89%)
DCL 8.65 Decreased By ▼ -0.29 (-3.24%)
DFML 40.79 Decreased By ▼ -0.90 (-2.16%)
DGKC 79.30 Decreased By ▼ -4.47 (-5.34%)
FCCL 32.71 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-0.18%)
FFBL 74.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.97 (-1.29%)
FFL 11.53 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.52%)
HUBC 109.10 Decreased By ▼ -1.45 (-1.31%)
HUMNL 14.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.56 (-3.85%)
KEL 5.36 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.56%)
KOSM 7.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.60 (-7.14%)
MLCF 38.54 Decreased By ▼ -1.25 (-3.14%)
NBP 63.50 Increased By ▲ 3.21 (5.32%)
OGDC 195.00 Decreased By ▼ -4.66 (-2.33%)
PAEL 25.61 Decreased By ▼ -1.04 (-3.9%)
PIBTL 7.38 Decreased By ▼ -0.28 (-3.66%)
PPL 155.25 Decreased By ▼ -2.67 (-1.69%)
PRL 25.60 Decreased By ▼ -1.13 (-4.23%)
PTC 17.40 Decreased By ▼ -1.06 (-5.74%)
SEARL 79.50 Decreased By ▼ -2.94 (-3.57%)
TELE 7.82 Decreased By ▼ -0.49 (-5.9%)
TOMCL 33.21 Decreased By ▼ -1.30 (-3.77%)
TPLP 8.56 Decreased By ▼ -0.50 (-5.52%)
TREET 16.51 Decreased By ▼ -0.96 (-5.5%)
TRG 57.70 Decreased By ▼ -3.62 (-5.9%)
UNITY 27.45 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.07%)
WTL 1.45 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (5.07%)
BR100 10,497 Increased By 90.3 (0.87%)
BR30 31,350 Decreased By -362.9 (-1.14%)
KSE100 97,624 Increased By 296 (0.3%)
KSE30 30,383 Increased By 190.3 (0.63%)

LONDON: Sterling set a fresh 2-1/2 year high against the dollar and a new 8-month high against the euro on Thursday on hopes that Britain's brisk pace of COVID-19 vaccinations would lead to a relatively quick rebound in economic growth.

With a Brexit deal in the bag, Britain's lead in vaccinations, along with lowered expectations of negative interest rates from the Bank of England, has boosted the pound against the euro.

The pound is up 1.2% against the single currency this year, and 0.7% this week. Speculators increased their long positions on the pound last week to their highest since September last year.

By 1543 GMT, sterling was up 0.5% against the dollar, having hit a fresh 2-1/2 year high of $1.3745.

Against the euro, it hit a new high of 88.30 pence, its highest since May 2020. ING said it expected sterling to gain to 88 pence per euro.

"If you look at the current status of the vaccination process, the UK is leading here in Europe and it's also still vaccinating at a faster pace than in most of the big EU countries," said Mikael Milhøj, senior analyst at Danske Bank.

"Also, you can see that the support for getting vaccinated in the UK is much higher than in Germany, Italy, Spain and especially of course in France. And that means that the UK economy may exit this COVID-19 crisis before the rest of Europe does and that I believe should have a positive impact on sterling."

Comments

Comments are closed.