Sterling rose to a two-month high against the rial as the euro fell and the dollar remained steady on Saturday in Ferdowsi Street – the heart of foreign exchange in Iran – which trailed Friday’s development in international forex markets.
Sterling rose in Tehran, playing catch up to its gains in the forex market following a landslide election victory by the Tory party in the UK on Friday. The British pound rose 1.22 percent to 51,360 rials by 12:04 BST on Saturday, it’s highest since March 10.
World bond and stock markets rose on Friday after a bruising week and sterling surged to a two-month high after the business-friendly Conservative party won Britain’s parliamentary election.
Sterling leapt 1.3 percent against the dollar and London’s FTSE led equity markets with a 1.9 percent jump to help European shares rebound from two-month lows and wipe out what had looked like being a second week of losses, Reuters reported.
As well as its gains against the dollar, the UK currency jumped 1.7 percent against both the euro and yen to notch its biggest trade-weighted rise since 2010.
With almost all the seats counted in the UK, the Conservatives were set to govern for another five years, quashing pre-election fears that the result might be too close for any party to form a stable government.
Traders and investors breathed a collective sigh of relief, putting aside for now concerns about a planned referendum that could lead to Britain leaving the European Union and focusing instead on hopes that the country will remain one of the fastest growing Western economies.
The euro on the other hand fell 0.96 percent to 37,520 rials by 12:04 BST on Saturday, while the dollar traded flat for the day.
