Currencies

British pound dips noticeably in early Asian trade

Pound coins are stacked in front of a twenty pound note.
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The British pound dipped noticeably in early Asian trade on Monday with investors watching the currency for any Brexit-related jitters following a by-election last week that showed the conservatives under Prime Minister Theresa May winning a former staunch Labour Party district.

The pound sterling fell 0.58% against the dollar 1.2394 around 0745 in Singapore. In October last year, a suspected "fat finger' in thin Asian trading hours sent the pound to a three-decade low.

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Experts also pointed to a report from Times of London that suggested May was preparing for the Scottish government to call a second independence referendum to coincide with the triggering of Article 50 in March.

"If that's the case, I suspect there's been a bit of an overreaction here," Ray Attrill, global co-head of foreign exchange strategy at National Australia Bank, told CNBC.

Attrill added, "If the market does seriously think there can be another independence referendum much sooner than that, then remembering how hard the pound fell in early September 2014 just in front of the prior referendum, then the memory of that makes Sterling a fairly easy sell here."

Saheli Roy Choudhury contributed to this report.

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