Sterling rose against the euro on Friday on the back of perky UK consumer confidence and housing data, but fell by a bigger margin against the dollar as declines in global stocks boosted the US currency across the board. This meant sterling was firmly on track for its biggest weekly rise against the euro in nine months, extending this week's rebound as traders put the surprise fall in third-quarter UK output announced last week to the back of their minds.
At the end of a week of generally mixed UK economic reports, the Nation-wide Building Society on Friday said that British house prices rose for a sixth month running in October to register their first annual gain since early 2008. Attention is now squarely on the Bank of England's policy meeting next Thursday, where it is expected to keep interest rates on hold at record lows of 0.5 percent but increase its quantitative easing by 25 billion pounds to 200 billion pounds.
At 1545 GMT sterling was down 0.6 percent against the dollar at $1.6460. On Thursday it rose above $1.66, its strongest in nearly a week and almost 4 cents up from Monday's trough of $1.6251. The euro was down 0.2 percent on the day at 89.37 pence, nearing the previous day's low of 89.12 pence, its weakest since mid-September. The euro is down 2.8 percent against the pound this week, its biggest decline in nine months. On Friday, it broke below the 55-day moving average technical support at 89.70 pence, Reuters charts showed.