The pound advanced for a second day against the dollar as the Debt Management Office prepared to sell U.K. government bonds maturing in 2068 via banks. Sterling was little changed versus the euro before Bank of England Governor Mervyn King testifies to the Treasury Committee in his final appearance as central-bank chief. The yield on U.K. 10-year gilts reached 2.59 percent yesterday, the highest level since October 2011, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said last week U.S. policy makers may begin paring asset purchases this year and end them in mid-2014. The pound rose 0.1 percent to $1.5454 at 7:39 a.m. London time after sliding to $1.5344 yesterday, the lowest level since June 5. Sterling traded at 85.07 pence per euro. King will speak on the Bank of England’s May 2013 inflation report along with Chief Economist Spencer Dale, and Monetary Policy Committee members Ben Broadbent and Martin Weale. Sterling has strengthened 4.7 percent in the past three months, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes, which track 10 developed-market currencies. The euro gained 5.2 percent and the dollar climbed 2.6 percent. Strategists at Scotiabank said yesterday that the U.K. may sell as much as 4 billion pounds of the 2068 gilts today. U.K. gilts handed investors a loss of 4 percent this year through yesterday, according to Bloomberg World Bond Indexes. German bonds dropped 2.2 percent and Treasuries declined 2.9 percent, the indexes show. To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Charlton in London at echarlton1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Dobson at pdobson2@bloomberg.net

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