Pound Falls, Gilts Rise as Stocks Slide, Bank Job Losses Loom

March 30 (Bloomberg) -- The pound fell against the dollar for a fourth day and gilts rose as equities dropped and an industry group said financial-services companies may eliminate as many as 15,000 jobs in the second quarter.

Sterling slipped to its lowest level in almost two weeks as leaders of advanced and emerging economies prepared to meet to discuss a global approach to financial regulation at the Group of 20 summit in London on April 2. Today’s drop versus the dollar put the pound on course for its third straight quarterly loss, the longest stretch of declines since December 2005.

“The pound is going to suffer given the negative global news,” said Ian Stannard, a senior currency strategist at BNP Paribas SA in London. “The increasing likelihood that we might not get anything significant out of the G-20 is going to weigh on equity markets and the pound too. Sterling could well be the underperformer of the week.”

Sterling dropped 1 percent to $1.4182 at 5:40 p.m. in London, after slumping to $1.4111, bringing its decline since the end of December to 3 percent. The British currency strengthened 0.1 percent to 92.68 pence per euro. The pound may drop to $1.36 this week, Stannard said.

Stock markets in Europe, the U.S. and Asia retreated. The U.K.’s benchmark FTSE 100 Index declined 3 percent as Barclays Plc slid as much as 15 percent after Societe Generale SA said the government may end up owning as much as 67 percent of the lender and recommended selling the shares. HSBC Holdings Plc lost as much as 8.8 percent.

Financial Job Cuts

U.K. financial-services companies may cut 1.4 percent of the industry’s workforce in the second quarter as business confidence declines, the Confederation of British Industry said today in a report based on a quarterly survey of financial companies. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said yesterday on the ABC News program “This Week” that some financial firms will need “large amounts” of government aid.

Government bonds gained as the Bank of England bought 2.5 billion pounds ($3.5 billion) of gilts today as part of its quantitative-easing plan to reduce borrowing costs and revive the economy.

Sellers offered 5.1 billion pounds of bonds, making a bid- to-cover ratio of 2.03, the U.K. central bank said in a statement today. Last week’s ratios were 1.4 on March 25 and 3.21 on March 23.

‘Very Positive’

“We’re still very positive on gilts,” said Nick Stamenkovic, a fixed-income strategist in Edinburgh at RIA Capital Markets, a securities broker for banks and institutional investors. “We think that the government will increase its purchases to bring yields down.”

The yield on the 10-year gilt fell 11 basis points to 3.18 percent. The 4.5 percent security due in March 2019 gained 0.95, or 9.5 pounds per 1,000-pound face amount, to 111.20. The two- year note yield decreased 11 basis points to 1.17 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices.

The U.K. government plans to sell 3.5 billion pounds ($5 billion) of notes due in 2015 on April 1 and 2.25 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) of 30-year bonds on April 2. The Treasury suffered its first failed auction in seven years last week as investors bid for less than the 1.75 billion pounds of 40-year securities offered by the Debt Management Office.

“We’ll be watching closely this week to see whether that was a one-off event or the start of a strike by gilt investors,” Stamenkovic said.