Investing.com - The pound rallied over 1% to two-and-a-half month highs against the U.S. dollar on Friday, boosted by the U.K. general election results and as markets shrugged off the release of mixed U.K. economic reports.
GBP/USD hit 1.5522 during European morning trade, the pair's highest since February 26; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5470, jumping 1.48%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5300, the low of April 30 and resistance at 1.5552, the high of February 26.
The pound strengthened broadly after the Conservatives won more than half the seats in the Parliament on Thursday, outnumbering Labour and allowing David Cameron to end a coalition with the Liberal Democrats and govern alone.
Earlier Friday, industry data showed that U.K. house prices rose 1.6% last month, exceeding expectations for a 0.4% gain. March's figure was revised to an increase of 0.6% from a previously estimated 0.4% rise.
Year-on-year, U.K. house prices increased by 8.5% in April, compared to expectations for a 7.8% rise.
Separately, the Office for National Statistics said that the U.K. trade deficit narrowed to £10.12 billion in March from £10.80 billion, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of £10.34 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to £9.80 billion in March.
Meanwhile, the dollar remained mostly supported after the U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending May 2 rose by 3,000 to 265,000 from the previous week's total of 262,000.
Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to rise by 18,000 to 280,000 last week.
Investors were now looking ahead to Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for further indications on the strength of the U.S. job market.
Sterling was sharply higher against the euro, with EUR/GBP down 1.73% to 0.7260.