Currencies Round up-27th November 2009

FX round-up: Dubai fear smacks pound Worries about the size and potential impact of Dubai’s debt problem on Britain’s banks sent the pound to its lowest level against a basket of currencies in over a month on Thursday. Dubai World, which has debts of $59bn, has asked creditors if it can delay debt repayments due next month until May of next year. Sterling doesn’t like it when the UK financial sector comes under pressure as these companies make such a big contribution to the country’s economy. The currency’s fall against the mighty yen was even more dramatic though, sinking more than 2% to a six-week low. A slump on global stock markets hastened the exit from “riskier” currencies like sterling. Thin trading due to the American Thanksgiving holiday made markets more volatile, so traders headed for the dollar and its attraction as a safe haven.

	GBP	AUD	CAD	JPY	EUR	CHF	USD
GBP	1.0000	1.8199	1.7465	141.2821	1.1000	1.6571	1.6395
AUD	0.5495	1.0000	0.9596	77.6317	0.6044	0.9105	0.9009
CAD	0.5726	1.0421	1.0000	80.8965	0.6299	0.9488	0.9387
JPY	0.0071	0.0129	0.0124	1.0000	0.0078	0.0117	0.0116
EUR	0.9091	1.6544	1.5877	128.4373	1.0000	1.5064	1.4904
CHF	0.6035	1.0982	1.0539	85.2585	0.6638	1.0000	0.9894
USD	0.6099	1.1100	1.0653	86.1750	0.6710	1.0108	1.0000