LONDON'S top index was the mirror image of the pound on Monday, as the currency dropped on poor economic data out of the UK in the morning.
The value of sterling fell by 0.39% to 1.2986 against the dollar. Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 rose by 0.39%, or 29.75 points, to 7617.6.
The two often move in reverse to each other. When the pound strengthens it pushes down the FTSE, which contains many companies which rely on exports for their revenues.
It marks the pound's lowest point in about two weeks.
"Recession fears and rate cut expectations dragged the pound sharply lower in early trade," said Fiona Cincotta, an analyst at City Index.
"The monthly GDP reading for November printed significantly worse than expected at minus 0.3% with the manufacturing sector acting as the biggest burden on the economy amid continued Brexit uncertainty and slow global demand."
It came as traders kept one cautious eye on trade news from the US and China.
The world's two largest economies are set to sign a deal later this week, after a long-running tariff war.
However, there was scarce new news on Monday, having little effect on markets, said David Madden at CMC Markets.
"Equity markets have gained major ground in recent months on the back of the trade story, and now it seems that traders are content to sit on their hands until the agreement has been made official," he said.
London's utilities sector was buoyed by reports that Pennon is planning to sell its waste management arm. The company closed the day up 7.1%, and helped to drag up Centrica, United Utilities and Severn Trent by more than 2% each.
Germany's Dax closed the day down 0.09, while the Cac index in France lost 0.02% of its value.
Brent crude, the international oil standard, fell 1.08% to $64.32 per barrel as tensions seem to ease between the US and Iran.
In company news, shares in Savills closed up 7.22% to 1,232p after the estate agency said it saw the UK commercial and residential markets pick up after last month's general election.
The real estate business said its full-year results for 2019 will be at the "upper end" of expectations, following an "excellent" performance in the UK.
It said Brexit uncertainty had restrained UK growth until mid-December, but saw "a strong close to the year as confidence to transact returned to the market".
The City Pub Group, which owns and runs 47 pubs across southern England and Wales, warned that annual profits will be below expectations.
Bosses at the chain said a series of external problems hit the business, while an expected boost from the Rugby World Cup failed to materialise.
The news sent shares plummeting nearly 14% in early trading on Monday, to 187.5p. They later recovered somewhat, closing down 9.2% at 197.5p.
Meanwhile, William Hill closed up 0.9% to 186p, as it said profits for the past year are expected to have surpassed expectations, after it was buoyed by favourable sporting results in December.
The gambling giant said this helped to boost its retail division and increase total group profits.
It expects operating profits from continuing operations in 2019 to have been between £143 million and £148m.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Evraz, up 21.4p to 412.50p, BAE Systems, up 21.2p to 614.00p, Antofagasta, up 25.6p to 970.80p, United Utilities, up 24p to 971.00p, and Severn Trent, up 59p to 2,518.00p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were NMC Healthcare, down 93p to 1,256.50p, Lloyds, down 1.59p to 58.74p, Flutter Entertainment, down 190p to 9,210.00p, AB Foods, down 46p to 2,575.00p, and St James's Place, down 19p to 1,120.00p.
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