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 a monetary stimulus announcement from the Bank of England.
According to the report, 31.2% of investors were long GBP/USD in the week ended July 22, little changed from 29.0% a week earlier.
The Bank of England cut interest rates to a record-low 0.25% and launched fresh easing measures last week 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.
Meanwhile, 30.8% of investors held long positions in EUR/USD as of last week, compared to 20.3% in the preceding week.
Amongst the safe-haven currencies, 41.2% of market participants held long positions in USD/JPY, falling from 46.0% in the previous week, while 48.5% of investors were long USD/CHF, down from 49.5%.
In the commodity-linked currencies space, 41.3% were long USD/CAD, little changed from 41.9% a week earlier, 43.5% held long positions in AUD/USD, compared to 45.5% in the preceding week, while 37.1% were long NZD/USD, up from 36.4% a week earlier.
The report also showed that 60.1% of market participants held long positions in gold futures as of last week, rising from 55.7% in the preceding week.
Elsewhere, 42.8% of investors were long the S&P 500, slumping from 55.2% 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.