Pound Rises As Conservative Continue Lead Over Labour

The pound strengthened against its major counterparts in the European session on Thursday, after an opinion poll continued to show support for the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party in the upcoming election on December 12.

An Ipsos MORI poll for The Standard showed that the lead for Tories increased by three points to 44 percent, while the Labour Party got 28 percent.

Data from the Office for National Statistics showed that the UK budget deficit widened more than expected in October.

Public sector net borrowing excluding public sector banks, increased by GBP 2.3 billion from the last year to GBP 11.2 billion in October. The expected level was GBP 9.3 billion.

The pound advanced to a 2-day high of 1.2950 versus the dollar, off an early low of 1.2914. The pound is seen finding resistance around the 1.32 area.

The pound gained to 1.2834 versus the franc and 140.66 versus the yen, from its early lows of 1.2787 and 139.97, respectively. Next key resistance for the pound is seen around 1.31 versus the franc and 145.00 versus the yen.

The pound hovered at a 2-day high of 0.8558 against the euro, compared to yesterday's closing value of 0.8567. If the pound rises further, 0.84 is possibly seen as its next resistance level.

Looking ahead, at 7:30 am ET, the European Central Bank releases the account of the monetary policy meeting of the Governing Council held on October 23-24.

U.S. weekly jobless claims for the week ended November 16, existing home sales and leading index for October are set for release in the New York session.

Eurozone flash consumer sentiment index for November will be published at 10:00 am ET.