Housing Prices data helps Sterling

Friday saw the release of the Nationwide building society's monthly report on UK house prices. This data is becoming more and more influential on the foreign exchange markets.

On Friday they reported that house prices went up on average 1.2% for the month of April. Many 'experts' forecast this data to show a decrease in house prices of 0.9%. So the markets took the positive data as a positive sign and as a result Sterling strengthened against all the major currencies. At close on Friday the Sterling v Shekel rate was 6.34.

Is this the start of a recovery in the UK or is it teasing us for worse to come?!