Investing.com - The pound remained higher against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, after the Bank of England left its monetary policy unchanged, while earlier U.K. house price data continued to support.
GBP/USD hit 1.6792 during early European afternoon trade, the pair's highest since May 28; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.6767, adding 0.17%.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6693, the low of May 29 and resistance at 1.6841, the high of May 16.
In a widely expected move, the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep interest rates on hold at their current record low of 0.5%. The bank also made no change in its quantitative easing program, which remains at £375 billion.
Expectations for a U.K. rate hike in the early part of next year have recently propelled sterling to multi-year highs against the dollar, after a string of strong economic reports indicated that the recovery is deepening.
Earlier Thursday, data showed that U.K. house prices rose by 3.9% last month, exceeding expectations for a 0.7% gain, after a 0.3% fall in April, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 0.2% slip.
Elsewhere, market participants were eyeing Friday's report on U.S. nonfarm payrolls for further indications on the strength of the U.S. job market after a data on Wednesday showed that private sector jobs rose less than expected last month.
Payroll processing firm ADP said non-farm private employment rose by 179,000 in May, below expectations for an increase of 210,000. April's figure was revised down to a gain of 215,000 from a previously reported increase of 220,000.
Sterling was fractionally higher against the euro, with EUR/GBP edging down 0.08% to 0.8117.
In the euro zone, data earlier showed that retail sales rose 0.4% in April, more than the expected 0.1% uptick, after a 0.1% gain in March, whose figure was revised down from a previously estimated 0.3% increase
A separate report showed that German factory orders rose 3.1% in April, beating expectations for a 1.3% increase, after a 2.8% decline the previous month.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish the weekly report on initial jobless claims.