Pound gains on house price data

The pound strengthened versus the US dollar Thursday after Nationwide Building Society said in a new report that the average price of a house in the UK was up 0.9 percent in March from February, the first increase in nearly a year and a half, rising to £150,946 against an expected continuation of price declines.

In late morning trade, the pound traded at 91.3p to the euro while it took $1.4664 to buy a pound.

The higher house prices and a gain in equities markets made it look as if the UK economy could beginning to recover from its current slowdown.

Meanwhile, the euro gained value after the European Central Bank cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 1.25 percent, less than the half a percentage point decline expected by most analysts.

At around 11:30 a.m. in New York, it took $1.345 to buy a euro while the yen traded at ¥133.887 to the shared currency.

The Swiss franc declined after the Swiss National Bank said it will continue to intervene to keep the currency from gaining value and on the ECB’s smaller-than-expected rate cut, trading at SFr1.5248 to the euro while it was at SFr1.1337 to the greenback.

The yen was also weaker as risk appetite returned on gains in equities markets, with the Japanese currency trading at ¥99.545 to the US dollar shortly before noon in New York.

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