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Pound sterling hits three-week high

By our correspondents
June 22, 2016

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TOKYO/SINGAPORE: The British pound set a three-week high against the dollar on Tuesday, getting a lift after opinion polls swung in favour of the campaign for Britain to stay in the European Union.

Two opinion polls on Monday showed that the "Remain" camp has recovered some ground in Britain´s European Union referendum debate.

The implied probability of a "Remain" vote in Thursday´s referendum rose to around 78 percent after falling as low as 60 percent last Thursday, according to odds from gaming website Betfair.

For the latest Reuters news on the referendum including full multimedia coverage, clickThe British pound rose 0.2 percent in Asian trade to $1.4707, and touched a peak of $1.4728 at one point, its highest level since May 26.On Monday, sterling climbed 2.1 percent against the dollar, its biggest one-day gain since late 2008."The market is reacting to every twist in opinion polls but trading is becoming choppy because people are avoiding taking big positions ahead of the poll.  Our options desk was fairly quiet yesterday," said Kyosuke Suzuki, director of forex in Japan for Societe Generale.