Forexpros – The pound hit a fresh session high against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, after the Bank of England announced no change to U.K. interest rates or to the size of the bank’s asset purchase program.
GBP/USD hit 1.5558 during European early afternoon trade, the pair’s highest since May 30; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5536, gaining 0.26%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5428, the session low and resistance at 1.5643, the high of May 30.
The BoE left interest rates unchanged at 0.5% and maintained its quantitative easing program at GBP325 billion.
Earlier in the day, investor’s trimmed back expectations for fresh economic stimulus by the BoE after data showed that the U.K. service sector grew faster than expected last month, matching the strong rate of growth seen in April.
The Markit/CIPS U.K. services purchasing managers’ index came in at 53.3 in May, defying expectations for a decline to 52.7 and unchanged from the previous months reading.
Investor sentiment was also boosted after Spain successfully sold EUR2.07 billion of bonds, slightly more than the targeted amount, in an auction which met with solid investor demand, but saw borrowing costs rise.
Market participants were looking ahead to testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on the outlook for the U.S. economy later in the day, amid speculation that the U.S. central bank is mulling new measures to stimulate growth.
The pound was also higher against the euro, with EUR/GBP shedding 0.38% to hit 0.8087.
Later Thursday, the U.S. was to release government data on initial jobless claims.
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