Brexit Delay Pound Rises and FTSE Falls

The pound has risen by 0.34% against the Euro and 0.64% higher against the dollar (at the time of writing today 3pm) due to delayed Brexit plans.

Prime Minister, Theresa May, announced today that if a ‘No Deal’ Brexit is rejected and removed by MPs in the delayed vote on 12^th March then there would be a delay to the date for Britain leaving the EU for negotiate a ‘Deal Only’ Brexit..

The stock market lost value on Theresa May’s comments.  The reasons were two-fold: 

• Investors have increasingly lost confidence with Brexit delays and feel a bigger impact could be seen in three months’ time. 
• The possibility of a ‘Deal Only’ Brexit means that the £ has strengthened, as we have seen above, thus weakening future profit expectations of FTSE 100 companies whose profits are currency sensitive given that they mainly have overseas earnings.