By Tommy Stubbington
Sterling held on to the gains it made late Thursday after a poll
showed a renewed lead for opponents of Scottish independence in the
run-up to next week's referendum.
The same pollster sent the pound into a tailspin earlier this
week when it showed pro-separatists in the lead for the first
time.
The pound was steady against the dollar at $1.6252 Friday.
"The panic is over for now and the market looks comfortable to
buy the pound on dips," said currency strategists at Citigroup.
More broadly, European stocks gave up small early gains to trade
little-changed midmorning on Friday, following a five-session
losing streak. The Stoxx Europe 600 index was less than 0.1%
higher. Markets fell slightly on Thursday, weighed by some weak
U.S. economic data and the introduction of a fresh round of
European Union sanctions against Russia.
The measures, initially approved on Monday, will take effect
Friday, reinforcing steps taken in July restricting trade, commerce
and financial links with Russia.
The U.K.'s FTSE 100 was 0.1% higher Friday. Germany's DAX and
France's CAC 40 fell 0.3%.
The tentative trading comes at the end of a week in which the
prospect that the U.S. Federal Reserve may soon signal a rise in
interest rates has weighed on global stocks.
"Equity indexes continue to struggle across all the major
markets, and there may not be much relief in sight until next
week's [Fed] announcement hopefully adds some clarity to the U.S.
monetary policy outlook," said Ian Williams, economist and
strategist at brokerage Peel Hunt.
In the U.S., futures pointed to a 0.1% opening loss for the
S&P 500. Changes in futures aren't necessarily reflected in
market moves after the opening bell.
Elsewhere in currency markets, the Russian ruble fell 0.5% to a
fresh all-time low of 37.727 following the new EU sanctions and
held close to that level after the bank of Russia left its main
interest rates on hold. A minority of analysts had expected a rate
hike.
Russian stocks climbed, with the Micex index 0.5% higher, as
investors concluded that the market had previously overreacted to
the prospect of new sanctions.
In commodities markets, gold fell 0.2% at $1,236.60 an ounce,
while Brent crude oil rose 0.2% to $99.08 a barrel.
Write to Tommy Stubbington at tommy.stubbington@wsj.com