Last week was one of the toughest in recent history for the pound, rounded off by a Friday flash crash, but today hasn’t done anything to reverse that. Sterling fell further against the dollar (-0.4%) and remained flat against the euro at the time of the London closing bell. The index itself however enjoyed a strong start to the week with gains of 0.75%. This was most likely helped by a mixture of a higher oil price and European shares in the green, with the further sterling weakness also a likely contributor. This has furthered the sell-off in UK Gilts as investors continue to worry over the fragile currency which has seen the sterling trade-weighted index fall to its lowest level since 2009. Reports later in the day surfaced that many euro/pound exchange rates at airports are now even below one!

Elsewhere in share news, Deutsche bank shares fell lower after the weekend failed to materialise a new deal with the US DoJ. William Hill confirmed they are in talks with Canadian firm Amaya, sending shares higher. Amaya own poker sites Full Tilt and PokerStars, with the deal expected to be in the region of £4.5bn.

As previously mentioned, oil rose to 1 year highs after talks of a deal to limit production looked promising to go through at OPEC’s November meeting. Progress has been made after Russia has said it will support a production freeze, helping companies such as BHP and Royal Dutch to top the FTSE 100 / oil at the time of writing sat above the $53 mark.