Hot Property – the Swiss Franc Faces All Comers

Monday September 5, 2011

It should not come as a major surprise to learn that the Swiss franc is doing so well in the markets at the moment. The Euro is struggling on all sides, trying to cope with the weight of bad news showering down over the Eurozone. Since the Swiss franc sits in the middle of all this and maintains its independence from Europe, it’s no major surprise to learn that the franc is standing up well.

But the picture is a little more complex than you might think. For starters the month of August started with the franc worth 0.8873 against the Euro. It then leapt up to 0.9050 the very next day, giving us a taste of what was to come.

The end of that first week of August trading closed with the franc grabbing 0.9217 Euros, providing a good exchange rate that the Euro would find hard to resist.

But there were bigger changes to come. By the 11th the Swiss franc had soared still further to 0.9524 and yet just twenty four hours later we saw the much lower rate of 0.9104 on the cards. Clearly the story is not as simple as saying that the Swiss franc is maintaining a strong fight against the beleaguered Euro. There is more to investigate here than that.

The low point of the following week was a disappointing 0.8770 but at least the Swiss franc did pick up a bit for the weekend by claiming a rate of 0.8818. Unbelievably though the 30th of the month saw the Euro fighting back and resulted in a closing rate for the day of 0.8449 for the Swiss franc. This was certainly a bizarre and slightly unusual fight which showed that the Swiss franc and the Euro were locked in an intriguing tussle. Finally the month finished on 0.8568 and by the end of the 2nd September – the last date for which up to date figures were available at the time of writing – we’d settled on 0.8983.

So will September be a soaring month for the Swiss franc to remember? The Euro might have had its moments against the currency during August but it certainly seems to be on the ropes for the beginning of September. Perhaps the doubt over the future of the Euro is too much to think about at the moment. It certainly seems to be affecting exchange rates here.