Housebuilders, banks and airlines saw the biggest gains on the FTSE, with Land Securities rising 4.09% to £11.44, Royal Bank of Scotland gaining 6.98% to £2.37 and British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines up 4.6%.
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Three British opinion polls ahead of the European Union membership referendum on June 23 showed the “Remain” camp recovering some momentum, although the overall picture remained one of an evenly split electorate.
A man looks at an electronic board showing the recent exchange rate between Japanese yen against the United States dollar and Japan’s Nikkei average outside a brokerage in Tokyo June 13, 2016.
The pound edged down 0.1 percent to $1.4666 GBP=D4 after it rose as high as $1.4721 on Monday, extending a recovery from last Thursday’s more than two-month trough of $1.4013.
Bookmakers’ odds have also shown “Remain” gaining traction, with Betfair putting the implied probability of such an outcome at 72 percent on Monday, up from 60-67 percent on Friday.
In Tokyo, the currency rose to US$1.4570 from US$1.4348 in NY late Friday, when it rallied in part due to the three-day suspension of campaigning after the Cox’s killing on Thursday.
“It might be possible that the events influenced the polls but most experts commented that it is more likely that an expected and well documented “pull to the status-quo” is responsible for the latest swing”, RBC’s chief European macro strategist, Peter Schaffrik, said.
“There’s still some jitters out there”, said Thierry Albert Wizman, global interest rates and currencies strategist at Macquarie Ltd in NY.
The dollar slipped 0.1 per cent to 103.85 yen, moving back toward Thursday’s almost two-year low of 103.55 hit after the Bank of Japan held policy steady and disappointed investors hoping for more stimulus.
The euro, meanwhile, firmed to US$1.1353 and 118.82 yen from US$1.1280 and 117.52 yen, while the USA dollar rose to 104.66 yen from 104.19 yen. “Should the next polls suggest that the change of sentiment persists euro/sterling may ease further”. The euro rose 0.5 percent to $1.1336 EUR= .
Safe-haven assets and currencies like gold, government bonds and the yen retreated. It rose 1.5 percent on Friday for its biggest single-day gain since June 3.
The yen, often sought by investors in times of market tension, fell half a percent to 104.62 per dollar.
In other trading, the dollar slipped against the Malaysian and Indonesian currencies, falling 0.97 percent to 3.9023 against the ringgit and 0.57 percent to 13,263.00 against the rupiah, respectively.
German 10-year yields were close to 0.05%, up from a record low of minus 0.037% on Thursday. The euro jumped 1.3 percent to 118.87 yen, well above Thursday’s three-year low of 115.51.
Crude oil futures gave back some of their gains after surging 3 percent on Monday as “Brexit” fears waned.
USA crude CLc1 gained 1 percent to $48.44 a barrel and Brent crude LCOc1 was up 0.8 percent at $49.56 per barrel.
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Gold, another safety play, fell 1.4 percent to just below $1,280 an ounce.
