The pound has dropped below 90p sterling on the foreign exchange markets, as currency dealing continues to be dominated by Britain's likely delay in joining monetary union.
Meanwhile, international stock markets had a strong day and should gain further encouragement today from a 1.75 per cent rise on Wall Street yesterday evening.
On the currency markets, while the pound had climbed in tandem with sterling on Monday, it dropped by almost 1p against the British currency yesterday to close at 89.53p sterling. The pound also gained slightly against the deutschmark to DM2.6123. Sterling and the dollar climbed against the deutschmark, with the British currency penetrating the DM2.91 level for the first time since early September, extending a rally that has pushed it up almost three pfennigs since Friday.
Meanwhile, late yesterday US stocks rose sharply in a rally led by upbeat earnings from International Business Machines Corp (IBM) and Microsoft Corp.
By earlier afternoon, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 94.30 points at 8,015.74 and it closed last night up 139 at 8060.44.
Microsoft announced profits of $663 million in the first quarter of its fiscal year, an 8 per cent rise from $614 million the year before.
Revenues rose to $3.130 billion from $2.295 billion, a 36 per cent increase. Excluding a one-time write-off, earnings per share of 72 cents represented a 53 per cent increase compared to the 47 cents earned during the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, IBM said its earnings rose 6 per cent in the third quarter. The world's largest computer maker said it earned $1.37 billion, or $1.38 a share, compared with $1.29 billion or $1.23 a share last year.
