Investing.com - The Investing.com weekly sentiment index published on Monday revealed that speculators stayed bearish on the British pound last week, as they looked ahead to more monetary stimulus from the Bank of England in the months ahead.
According to the report, 32.2% of investors were long GBP/USD in the week ended August 19, falling from 38.2% a week earlier.
The Bank of England cut interest rates to a record-low and launched fresh easing measures earlier this month in a bid to buffer the economy from a downturn following the Brexit vote.
Economic activity in the U.K. is expected to slow down sharply in the second half of the year as businesses face uncertainty over the country’s future direction in wake of the U.K.'s vote to exit the European Union, putting more pressure on policymakers to add to stimulus.
Meanwhile, 23.9% of investors held long positions in EUR/USD as of last week, compared to 28.8% in the preceding week.
Amongst the safe-haven currencies, 43.1% of market participants held long positions in USD/JPY, rising slightly from 41.4% in the previous week, while 54.2% of investors were long USD/CHF, up from 50.0%.
In the commodity-linked currencies space, 46.2% were long USD/CAD, little changed from 46.9% a week earlier, 54.6% held long positions in AUD/USD, compared to 45.0% in the preceding week, while 35.3% were long NZD/USD, falling slightly from 36.9% a week earlier.
The report also showed that 58.0% of market participants held long positions in gold futures as of last week, compared to 57.5% in the preceding week.
Elsewhere, 58.5% of investors were long the S&P 500, improving from 49.2% a week earlier.
A reading between 50%-70% is bullish for the instrument, a reading between 30% and 50% is bearish, a reading above 70% indicates overbought conditions and a reading below 30% indicates oversold conditions.
The Investing.com series of indexes is developed in-house. Each index measures overall exposure to major currency pairs, commodities and indexes, using data from futures exchanges and OTC providers on all long and short open positions.