Sterling has weakened across the board during the Asian session, cable presently down at 1.5015 from a North American close Monday up around 1.5065 while EUR/GBP is up at .9068 from around .9045.

A special poll carried out for The Times newspaper shows Labour and the Conservatives running neck and neck in key marginal seats which will determine the general election, raising further the spectre of a hung parliament.

UK RICS house price balance for February came in at 17, demonstrably lower than the median forecast of 30 and the lowest reading since August 2009. Looks like the strong house price rally seen in 2009 has hit the buffers.

Finally Moody’s has warned that wind down of UK banking bailout programmes could result in rating downgrades for some UK banks.

Not much of UK economic data front today:

09:30 GMT: UK trade for January. Visible -7000; Non EU -3350; total -3000

Sovereign buy interest tipped down at 1.4950.