Pound Trades Higher As UK Voting Begins

The pound traded higher against its major counterparts in the Asian session on Thursday, as voters head to the polls in U.K. election amid hopes of securing victory by Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had pledged deliver Brexit by the end of January.

Polling began at 7 am U.K. time and will end at 10 pm.

The latest opinion polls indicated that the race has tightened significantly.

The Conservatives are hoping for a majority win, enabling to take Britain out of the European Union by the end of January.

Today's election has been described by all parties as Britain's most important in memory.

In economic releases, U.K. house prices declined at the fastest pace since April as uncertainties from Brexit and general election weighed on the property market, survey data from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed.

The house price balance fell to -12 in November from -5 in October.

The pound rose to 1.2994 against the franc and held steady thereafter. The pair had ended Wednesday's deals at 1.2968.

The pound appreciated to 1.3230 against the greenback, its strongest since March 25. The pair moved sideways since then. At yesterday's close, the pair was worth 1.3195.

The U.K. currency climbed to a 2-day high of 143.64 against the yen from Wednesday's closing value of 143.25.

Data from the Cabinet Office showed that Japan core machine orders fell a seasonally adjusted 6.0 percent on month in October - coming in at 798.8 billion yen.

That missed forecasts for an increase of 0.7 percent following the 2.9 percent decline in September.

The pound ticked up to 0.8420 against the euro and traded steadily in subsequent part of the session. The euro-pound pair had finished yesterday's trading at 0.8434.

Looking ahead, the Swiss National Bank's monetary policy announcement will be out at 3:30 am ET. Economists widely expect the central bank to maintain policy rate at -0.75 percent.

Eurozone industrial production for October is set for release in the European session.

The European Central Bank will announce interest rate decision at 7:45 am ET. The ECB is expected to hold its main refi rate at a record low zero percent and the deposit rate at -0.50 percent.

Canada new housing price index for October, U.S. producer price index for November and weekly jobless claims for the week ended December 7 are due in the New York session.

Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz will give a speech about Canada's economic outlook for 2020 at the Empire Club of Canada in Toronto at 12:30 pm ET.

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