British pound falls amid oil concern

Press, 9 December 1983, Page 10

British pound falls amid oil concern

NZPA-Reuter New York

The British pound sterling fell to record lows against the dollar in New York on Wednesday as the United States currency closed mostly firmer in very nervous and volatile trading.

Much of the attention was focused on sterling, which recorded record lows earlier in London and in interbank trading in New York. The pound closed at $1.4390 against the previous day’s $1.4510. Although OPEC oil ministers agreed to keep the present oil price, the clim-

ate of soft crude-oil prices dominated traders’ thinking, according to dealers. They said the dollar continued to be underpinned by firm interest rates and tensions in Lebanon, but that at its present high levels its rise can meet much resistance from profit-taking. It closed higher than before at 2.7330 West German marks, but dropped to 233.50 yen.

London dealers said a Middle East client sold a large amount of sterling for West German marks, and this undermined the sterling price. __

In Sydney, the Australian dollar lost further ground yesterday against the United States dollar and the trade weighted index was cut for the fifth consecutive working day.

The Australian Reserve Bank set the 9.30 a.m. indicative midrate at 90.31 United States cents, compared with Wednesday’s official closing rate of 90.46 United States cents.

The trade weighted index — a measure of the Australian dollar against a basket of other major currencies — was brought back to 81.4 from 81.5.