FTSE 100 Edges Up On Weaker Pound

U.K. stocks rose on Monday as the pound stayed on the back foot amid a lack of progress in talks over Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol and ahead of Bank of England (BoE) policy meeting on Thursday. Market participants are pricing in a rate hike to curb inflation.

The benchmark FTSE 100 rose 40 points, or 0.6 percent, to 7,277 after declining 0.2 percent on Friday.

Commercial landlord Land Securities was marginally higher after it agreed to buy property regeneration company U&I Group in a £190m deal. Shares of the latter jumped as much as 72 percent.

Drug maker AstraZeneca gained half a percent after it agreed to transfer global rights to Eklira, and Duaklir to Covis Pharma Group.

Airline Ryanair held steady after narrowing its first-half loss.

Barclays declined 1.7 percent. The lender said that its chief executive Jes Staley will step down following U.K. regulators’ investigations into his relationship with U.S. Financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in U.S. jail in 2019.