The British pound surged Thursday as markets anticipated Scots would vote against independence from Britain and put to rest worries of possible turbulence in markets.
The dollar meanwhile slipped backwards after having risen steadily ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve announcement, which essentially left unchanged the slow crawl toward monetary policy normalization, with an initial interest rate rise still expected only mid-year 2015.
The pound gained more than one cent on the dollar, to $1.6389, before the Scottish polls closed at 2100 GMT.
“The pound’s reaction clearly suggests investors are convinced that the Scots will vote to stay in the union,” said Fawad Razaqzada at traders Forex.com.
“Needless to say, a ‘yes’ vote would almost certainly result in a massive, massive drop,” he added.
Last week the pound slumped to a 10-month dollar low after polls showed the “yes” vote had the edge.
2100 GMT Thursday Wednesday
EUR/USD 1.2921 1.2865
EUR/JPY 140.43 139.32
EUR/CHF 1.2066 1.2108
EUR/GBP 0.7882 0.7902
USD/JPY 108.68 108.29
USD/CHF 0.9338 0.9410
GBP/USD 1.6389 1.6280