The pound is taking off on Thursday morning after the High Court ruled that the British government cannot begin the formal process to leave the European Union without first having a vote in parliament.
The verdict of the landmark case on the triggering Article 50 was announced just after 10.00 a.m. GMT, and send the pound soaring, climbing more than 1.2% against the dollar almost instantaneously. It then quickly slipped back, before ticking higher once again. As of 11.00 a.m. GMT (7.00 a.m. ET) it is higher by 1.1% to around $1.2440
Here is the chart of how it looks on the day:
Against the euro, sterling is even higher, climbing 1.23%. Here’s the chart:
Earlier in the morning, the pound's relative strength was driven by weakness in the dollar caused by growing concerns in the markets about a Donald Trump presidency. Polls in recent days suggest that Republican Presidential candidate Trump is substantially narrowing the gap between himself and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton with less than a week to the presidential election.
A Trump presidency would be broadly seen as a negative for the financial markets, and as a result, the prospect has pushed investors away from the dollar, in turn sending sterling upwards.
Sterling's fall on the day has pushed UK stocks lower, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index lower by more than 0.5% following the Article 50 decision. Here's the chart:
