BLBG:Pound Heads for Weekly Loss Against Dollar as House Prices Fall
The pound headed for a weekly loss against the dollar, snapping two weeks of gains, after an industry report showed U.K. house prices dropped the most in 18 months in April.
Sterling was poised for a third weekly advance versus the euro before France and Greece hold elections this weekend, increasing political uncertainty as the region grapples with a sovereign debt crisis. Gilts were little changed.
The pound fell 0.1 percent to $1.6169 at 8:59 a.m. London time, having declined 0.6 percent this week. The U.K. currency gained 0.1 percent to 81.22 pence per euro after rising to 81.03 pence yesterday, the strongest since June 2010.
The Halifax house price index dropped 2.4 percent from March, the largest monthly decline since September 2010, the mortgage unit of Lloyds Banking Group Plc said in a statement in London today.
Sterling has appreciated 3.4 percent in the past three months, the best performer of the 10 developed-nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The dollar gained 0.9 percent and the euro climbed 0.7 percent.
Gilts were little changed before the Debt Management Office sells 3 billion pounds of 29-, 90- and 181-day bills.
The 10-year gilt yielded 2.04 percent. The 4 percent bond due in March 2022 traded at 117.42.
Gilts have handed investors a loss of 0.8 percent this year, according to indexes compiled by Bloomberg and the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies. Treasuries returned 0.2 percent, and German bunds gained 1.6 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Keith Jenkins in London at kjenkins3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net
