Mixed Results: Pound Rose and Australian Dollar Fell
Australian dollar rose by 0.67%
The Australian dollar-US dollar currency pair was on a positive bias on January 20, 2016. It rose by 0.67%. The currency pair rose to a high of 0.6962 before ending the day at 0.6911. The uptick in the Australian dollar was mainly due to the release of moderate Chinese data in terms of the GDP (gross domestic product). The release of the Westpac Consumer Sentiment on January 20, 2016, is expected to give the currency pair more direction.
Chinese data are nearly in line with expectations
The National Bureau of Statistics published the GDP for the quarter ending in December on January 18, 2016. On a YoY (year-over-year) basis, the GDP grew at 6.8%. This was below the previous quarter’s figures but pretty much in line with market expectations. The agricultural production had a good quarter of growth, while the investment in fixed assets experienced a fall. Among other data, industrial production came in at 5.9%. It was slightly below the forecast of 6%. Retail sales came in at 11.1%—compared to forecasts of 11.3%.
Impact on the market
Australian ETFs were trading on a positive note on January 19, 2016. The CurrencyShares Australian Dollar Trust ETF (FXA) rose by 0.90%. Meanwhile, the iShares MSCI Australia Index Fund ETF (EWA) followed a similar trajectory. It rose by 2.4%.
Australian ADRs (American depositary receipts) trading on US markets were trading on a negative bias. BHP Billiton (BHP) fell by 0.59%. In the mining sector, British-Australian multinational Rio Tinto (RIO) fell by 1.3%. Australian banking ADR Westpac Banking (WBK) was trading on a positive bias. It rose by 2.0% on January 19, 2016.
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