sterling

Hargreaves Lansdown's legal challenge to HMRC's move to tax platform rebates was the story of most interest to Investment Week's readers this week.

Sterling has risen to a seven-month high against the dollar after the UK's unemployment rate unexpectedly dipped from 7.8% to 7.7%.

Sterling dropped and then recovered sharply minutes after new Bank of England Governor Mark Carney told the world he has no plans to raise rates any time soon, but was upbeat on UK growth.

The FTSE 100 closed 1.4% down on Wednesday after new Bank of England Governor Mark Carney gave the market forward guidance, but sterling recovered after an initial drop.

CURRENCIES

The pound has slid sharply over the last few weeks versus a basket of currencies, while the US dollar has continued its 2013 resurgence, but where are the screaming buys in currency markets now?

Sterling and gilt yields have jumped this morning after the latest Monetary Policy Committee minutes revealed Mark Carney and all other MPC members voted against more QE in July.

A member of the Monetary Policy Committee told the Treasury today that "all of the discussions" at the Bank of England are about extending the quantitative easing programme rather than slowing it down.

Investors backing the US dollar were caught out last night after Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said stimulus measures are likely to remain in place in the US for some time.

Aggressive selling of sterling following last week's guidance on rates from the Bank of England has taken the pound to its lowest level in three years versus the dollar in trading today.