The pound dipped on Monday, helping the FTSE 100 eke out another record high after the Government revealed plans to trigger Article 50 next week.
Sterling fell more than 0.4% against the US dollar to trade near 1.234, and dropped over 0.3% versus the euro to trade at 1.149.
The FTSE 100 recorded another all-time record high thanks in part to the drop in the pound, ending the day up 0.07% or 4.85 points at 7,429.81.
Mutlinational firms on the blue chip index tend to benefit when foreign currencies are stronger than sterling.
It follows news that Theresa May will trigger the beginning of formal Brexit talks March 29.
Connor Campbell, a financial analyst at SpreadEx, said: "Having enjoyed three week highs during the morning, the spectre of Brexit came back to haunt the pound this afternoon."
The pound had risen above 1.24 against the US dollar in early trading amid investor excitement over the Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure of inflation, set to be released Tuesday.
It is expected to have exceeded the Bank of England's 2% target at 2.1% in February.
"Now the pound finds itself back in the red and below 1.24 thanks to Theresa May's confirmation that she will trigger Article 50 on March 29," Mr Campbell added.
The news was hardly a surprise - however the reminder that the UK is facing years of difficult and likely hostile trade negotiations seemed to suppress investors' appetite for the currency.
Across Europe, the French Cac and German Dax dropped by 0.34% and 0.35%, respectively.
In oil markets, Brent crude was hovering around the flatline at 51.72 US dollars per barrel (£41.89).
Investor concern over growing energy output in the US was countered by reports suggesting Opec was considering extending production cuts into the second half of the year.
In UK stocks, Vodafone shares dropped 0.9p to 210.5p after announcing plans to merge its Indian operation with Idea Cellular in a deal that will create the Asian country's biggest telecoms firm.
Vodafone said there would be "substantial" cost savings to be made off the back of the deal, estimated to be around 10 billion US dollars (£8 billion).
A FTSE Russell EMEA Committee decision to relegate Dixons Carphone and Capita shares from the blue chip index came into effect today, pushing those two stocks into the FTSE 250.
Companies listed on the UK stock market are reviewed four times a year and reshuffled among the indexes based on their market capitalisation, a measurement derived from a firm's share price.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were 3i Group up 14p to 735p, Direct Line Insurance Group up 6.5p to 340.9p, Admiral Group up 34p to 1,979p, and Sainsbury up 4.7p to 274.4p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Royal Bank of Scotland down 4p to 239.9p, Hikma Pharmaceuticals down 33p to 2,135p, Smurfit Kappa Group down 26p to 2,206p, and Anglo American down 14.5p to 1,278p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here