BLBG:Pound Rises to 5-Week High Versus Euro as Cyprus Debates Bailout
The pound appreciated to its strongest level against the euro in five weeks as Cypriot lawmakers begin a debate on legislation to unlock rescue funds.
Sterling headed for its biggest weekly advance in six against the euro after Cyprus’s Finance Minister Michael Sarris said the nation had failed to gain financial support from Russia that it sought after rejecting a European bailout plan. The U.K. currency rose to a three-week high against the dollar yesterday after retail-sales data damped speculation the Bank of England will add to monetary stimulus that tends to debase a currency.
The pound gained 0.1 percent to 84.96 pence per euro at 7:50 a.m. London time, after appreciating to 84.85 pence, the strongest since Feb. 11. It has advanced 1.8 percent this week, the most since the period ended Feb. 8. Sterling was little changed at $1.5185, after rising to $1.5210 yesterday, the highest since Feb. 28.
Sterling has still weakened 4.4 percent this year, the second-worst performer after the yen of the 10 developed-nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The euro gained 0.6 percent and the dollar rose 3.1 percent.
U.K. government bonds returned 1.1 percent this month through yesterday, according to indexes compiled by Bloomberg and the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies. German bunds gained 0.6 percent and Treasuries fell 0.1 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lukanyo Mnyanda in Edinburgh at lmnyanda@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Dobson at pdobson2@bloomberg.net
