UK gilts jump after January retail sales miss market expectations, albeit higher than previous

The UK gilts jumped Friday after the country’s retail sales for the month of January, missed market expectations, albeit registering figures higher than the ones seen in December.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year gilts, slumped 3 basis points to 1.61 percent, the super-long 30-year bond yields plunged 3-1/2 basis points to 2.00 percent while the yield on the short-term 2-year traded 2 basis points lower at 0.68 percent by 10:15GMT.

Sales increased 0.1 percent from December, far below the 0.5 percent gain forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey. From a year earlier, sales rose 1.6 percent, the weakest for a January in four years, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday.

The ONS said the longer-term picture for retail sales is a "continued slowdown". On a three-month basis, sales rose 1.5 percent compared with January 2017, down from rates above 4 percent a year ago. The Bank of England’s (BoE) latest outlook won’t do much to lift U.K. retailers’ spirits. It said this month that consumption growth will “remain subdued in the near term", Bloomberg reported.

Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 traded 0.77 percent higher at 7,289.75 by 10:20 GMT, while at 10:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Pound Strength Index remained neutral at -49.64 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

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