Confirmation of what exactly Theresa May has planned for March’s Brexit bonanza slowed the pound down while keeping the brunt of its gains intact.
The Prime Minster promised, not one, not two, but three votes for MPs to bicker about. First up is the already announced ‘meaningful’ vote by March 12th, one that’ll be make or break time for whatever deal May can muster; if that fails, then March 13th MPs sees a vote on leaving with no deal; if no deal is rejected, another vote will be held on March 14th covering a 3 month extension to Article 50. All this around 2 weeks before Britain is meant to be crashing out of the EU...
That May clearly isn’t a fan of delaying Brexit, combined with the knife-edge nature of her latest proposal, pulled sterling back from its early highs. However, against the dollar it was still up half a percent and the right side of $1.316, with a 0.6% increase against the euro just about pushing it to €1.16.
A sharp turnaround from its banking stocks – all bar Standard Chartered (LON:STAN), which disappointed investors with its full year results – and a huge 10% surge from Ocado (LON:OCDO) as M&S (LON:MKS) confirmed the pair were in talks completely transformed the FTSE's performance. Having dipped below 7100 at lunchtime, the UK index managed to trim its losses to just 20 points, pushing it back beyond 7160.
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