On Wednesday the British currency approached two-month highs against the U.S. dollar, as sentiment for the greenback weakened ahead of U.S. data and as market participants awaited
the Federal Reserve's monthly policy statement due later in the global trading day.
GBP/USD hit 1.5406 during European morning trade, the pair's highest since March 2; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.5387, gaining 0.32%. Cable was likely to find support at 1.5174, Tuesday's low and resistance at 1.5460, the high of February 27.
The dollar came under pressure after a recent series of downbeat data which has prompted investors to scale back expectations on the timing of a first rate hike by the U.S. central bank.
Investors were looking ahead to preliminary data on first quarter U.S. economic growth and a report on pending home sales later in the day for further indications on the strength of the recovery, ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy announcement.
In the U.K., the Nationwide Building Society earlier reported that its house price index rose 1.0% this month, exceeding expectations for a 0.2% uptick, after a 0.1% gain in March.
Markets were hardly impacted by data issued Tuesday showing that the U.K. gross domestic product halved in the three months to March, expanding 0.3% from 0.6% in the final quarter of 2014. It was the slowest rate of growth since the fourth quarter of 2012.
Markets were closely watching the outcome of the upcoming U.K. general
elections on May 7, which could result in a hung parliament and an
unstable coalition government, which could act as a drag on growth and put the local currency under heavy pressure.
Sterling was higher against the euro, with EUR/GBP sliding 0.13% to 0.7149.
