LONDON (AFP) - The pound was on the backfoot against the euro as further evidence emerged of a slowdown in the housing market.
In its monthly house market survey, the Nationwide building society found that house prices fell by 0.4 percent in October from the month before.
That was the first monthly fall since October 2001 and the largest decline since February 2001.
Elsewhere, the dollar's recovery was cut short as the market strove to work out the implications of China's surprise decision to raise its key interest rate by 0.27 percent to 5.58 percent.
The US currency had been buoyed until news of China's first rate rise in over nine years filtered through, as oil prices continued to drop in the wake of Wendesday's news that the US substantially increased its crude oil inventories.
10/28/2004 - 16:14 GMT - AFP