The pound dropped for the first time in four days against the dollar before an industry report that economists said will show U.K. construction slowed last month. Ten-year gilts gained. The construction gauge, based on a survey by Markit Economics and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, fell to 51.3, the lowest since September, from 51.4 in January, Markit will say today, according to a Bloomberg News survey. The U.K. will sell as much as 4.5 billion pounds ($7.2 billion) of bills today. The pound weakened 0.3 percent to $1.5911 at 8:54 a.m. London time after gaining 0.8 percent over the previous three days. Sterling was little changed at 83.28 pence per euro after reaching 83.23, the strongest since Feb. 20. The 10-year gilt yield dropped three basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 2.19 percent. The 4 percent bond maturing in March 2022 rose 0.235, or 2.35 euros per 1,000-pound face amount, to 116.175. Gilts have handed investors a 1.5 percent loss this year, according to indexes compiled by Bloomberg and the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies. Sterling has dropped 0.7 percent in 2012, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes, which track 10 developed-nation currencies. The dollar weakened 3.3 percent and the euro fell 0.8 percent. -- Editors: Nicholas Reynolds, Mark McCord To contact the reporter on this story: David Goodman in London at dgoodman28@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Tilles at dtilles@bloomberg.net

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