Pound stronger amid more demand

The pound strengthened versus the greenback and the euro Monday on higher demand after recent declines for the currency.

Gains for the pound also came after UK house prices were reported to have added 2.4 percent in May from April’s levels at a time when mortgages are becoming more accessible to prospective buyers and on a separate report that retail sales were up 6.3 percent in the UK in April from April 2008.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) recommended that its customers buy the pound amid further positive comment on the currency from Barclays Bank (LSE: BARC; NYSE: BCS; TYO: 8642) and Credit Suisse (SWX: CSGN; NYSE: CS).

In late morning trade in New York, the pound traded at 88.24p to the euro, while it took $1.5295 to buy a pound.

Meanwhile, the Japanese yen weakened after Japan’s Vice Finance Minister said that “excessive” moves by the currency could be bad for the nation’s economy as well as on a move by Moody’s Investors Service to set both Japan’s local and foreign-currency debt levels at Aa2.

At just past 11 a.m. in New York, the yen traded at ¥95.77 to the US dollar and at ¥129.2617 to the euro, while the Japanese currency was at ¥11.1175 to the South African rand, at ¥46.038 to the Brazilian real and at ¥72.7449 to the Australian dollar.

The Indian rupee gained ground on the greenback after the country’s ruling Congress party won enough seats in elections there to form a new government without Communist support, trading at 47.775 rupees to the US dollar at late morning in New York.

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