Investing.com - The pound remained steady against the dollar on Thursday after the Bank of England kept monetary policy on hold, as dovish sounding Federal Reserve minutes continued to pressure the dollar lower.
GBP/USD was trading at 1.6771, down from 1.6788 ahead of the announcement. The pair rose to highs of 1.6820 earlier, the strongest level since November 2009.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.6723, Wednesday’s low and resistance at 1.6820.
The BoE said it was maintaining the benchmark interest rate at 0.50%, in a widely anticipated move. The bank also said it was to maintain the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at £375 billion.
The dollar remained under pressure after the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s March meeting indicated that an interest rate increase is unlikely to be warranted for some time.
The Fed’s March meeting minutes released on Wednesday showed that policymakers discussed whether to keep interest rates at record lows until inflation moves higher, and did not elaborate on a possible timeframe for when rates could start to rise.
The minutes also indicated growing concerns among officials over persistently low inflation.
Last month the U.S. central bank reduced the monthly pace of purchases by $10 billion, to $55 billion, and repeated it is likely to continue paring the program in “further measured steps.”
Elsewhere, sterling remained slightly lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP rising 0.21% to 0.8266.
In the euro zone, Greece made a successful return to the financial markets on Thursday, raising €3 billion in its first bond auction since 2010, when Athens sought its first bailout.