The pound strengthened to the most in more than seven months against the dollar after a report showed U.K. consumer confidence unexpectedly rose to the most since June. Sterling traded near the strongest in almost two years against the euro. A Nationwide Building Society index of sentiment for March climbed to 53, from 44 in February. The median of eight estimates in a Bloomberg survey called for a decline to 43. A report yesterday showed the U.K. economy unexpectedly slipped back into recession. The Debt Management Office plans to auction as much as 3 billion pounds ($4.9 billion) of bills tomorrow. The pound appreciated for a ninth day, gaining 0.2 percent to $1.6192 at 9:25 a.m. London time, after touching $1.6207, the highest since Sept. 2. It was little changed at 81.83 pence per euro. It gained to 81.44 pence on April 24, the strongest level since Aug. 23, 2010. Sterling has climbed 1.6 percent in the past month, the second-best performer after the yen among the 10 developed- nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The euro dropped 0.8 percent. U.K. 10-year bonds were little changed with the yield at 2.15 percent. The 4 percent security due March 2022 changed hands at 116.385 percent of face value. Gilts have handed investors a loss of 1.3 percent this year, according to indexes compiled by Bloomberg and the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies. That’s the third worst performance among 26 sovereign markets tracked by the indexes after Spain and Greece. To contact the reporter on this story: Lucy Meakin in London at lmeakin1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net.

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