Sterling continues to fall as possibility of ‘YES’ vote increases

Sterling lost out over the weekend, with the release of the first YouGov poll to show that the ‘Yes’ vote was ahead in the upcoming Scottish independence referendum. This saw sterling open at a 10-month low against the US dollar and lose ground against the euro. With no significant data released throughout the day, sterling drifted lower before finding limited support later in the day. With the result of the referendum poised on a knife-edge, this is likely to be the main market-mover this and probably next week, with the potential harm to sterling of a ‘yes’ result in 2 weeks negating the effect of any positive UK economic data that may be released.
Today we hear Bank of England (BoE) Governor, Mark Carney, speaking in Liverpool, where investors will look for any clues regarding the next interest rate rise. This will be followed by manufacturing production figures, which is expected to show marginal growth throughout the industry.