LONDON: Sterling fell towards a 17-month trough against the dollar on Tuesday, while gilt futures rose, after data showed growth in Britain's services sector unexpectedly waned to a 19-month low in December.
The Markit/CIPS UK Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) suffered its biggest decline in more than three years, falling to 55.8 from 58.6 in November, marking a sharper slowdown that any of the economists in a Reuters poll had forecast.
Sterling fell to $1.5188 after the data from around $1.5228 beforehand, leaving it close to a low of $1.5185 touched on Monday and down 0.4 percent on the day.
Against the euro, the pound weakened to 78.495 pence from around 78.365 pence before.
UK gilt futures rose to trade 58 ticks higher on the day at 120.97 compared with 120.85 just before the data.
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