The British Pound strengthened against the Greenback on the grounds of shiny UK service industry data. Following the report, the GBP/USD currency pair jumped 22 base points to the 1.3278. However, by the end of the session the pair returned to the prior lows near the 1.3230 area, confirming that the sentiment concerning the Sterling's outlook stayed more downbeat amid lingering uncertainties over Brexit talks.
Markit report showed that the Britain's services sector grew at a stronger-than-anticipated pace in September, putting the industry's PMI to a seasonally adjusted 53.6, above forecasts for an unchanged reading. The strong data could ease concerns over the UK economy and support expectations for the Bank of England's interest rate hike.
| Historical Data Table: UK Services PMI | |||||
| Date | 05.06.2017 | 05.07.2017 | 03.08.2017 | 05.09.2017 | 04.10.2017 |
| Actual | 53.8 | 53.4 | 53.8 | 53.2 | 53.6 |
| Forecast | 55.1 | 53.6 | 53.6 | 53.5 | 53.2 |
| Initial Reaction on Main Pairs | |||||
| Open Price | Close Price | % Change | |||
| GBP/USD | 1.32562 | 1.32786 | 0.17% | ||
| EUR/GBP | 0.88745 | 0.88566 | -0.20% | ||
| GBP/CAD | 1.65434 | 1.65672 | 0.14% | ||
| GBP/JPY | 149.231 | 149.492 | 0.17% | ||