Sterling failed to take flight following news of the UK’s spooky Article 50 ‘flextension’, the currency perhaps held back by lingering doubts over whether the country’s MPs can ever reach an agreement over what kind of Brexit they want.
Against the dollar the pound added another 0.1%, pushing cable above $1.309 to leave it at a 7-day high; against the euro, meanwhile, sterling was unchanged at €1.16, still well off the €1.1725-plus levels struck this time last week.
One of the big questions coming out of the EU summit is whether or not Theresa May will continue on as Prime Minister. Previously she had stated she wouldn’t stay in office if Brexit was delayed beyond June 30th, 4 whole months earlier than the newly agreed October 31st exit date. However, she does have a get out of jail free card, for now at least; Britain could leave earlier, and even avoid the European Parliament elections in May, if a deal is passed before then.
The FTSE trickled slightly lower after the bell, its 15 point loss pushing it back towards 7400 as the index continues to gently unravel the growth seen last week. A decent portion of the blame can be pinned on its miners, alongside some big stocks, like ITV (LON:ITV) and Mondi (LON:MNDI), going ex-dividend.
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