STERLING staged a mini comeback on Friday after coming under pressure on the back of Donald Trump's comments that a post-Brexit trade deal between Britain and the US could be dead.
The outspoken US president, on an official visit to the UK, warned Theresa May that her Brexit plan could "kill" any UK-US trade deal because Britain would remain so closely aligned to the European Union.
His comments - which included claims that Boris Johnson has "got what it takes" to be prime minister - sparked a sterling sell-off.
However, Mr Trump then rowed back on the comments, leading to the pound bouncing back to end the session marginally up versus the US dollar at 1.32.
Versus the euro, the British currency was flat at 1.13.
Connor Campbell, analyst at SpreadEx, said: "Sterling managed to halve its losses as the afternoon went on.
"That's as Trump said the US-UK relationship was the 'highest level of special', kinder words for Britain than the president had at the start of his visit, with May also claiming she had discussed 'ambitious' trade plans [with Trump]."
As the pound recovered, the FTSE 100 was pegged back, but still managed to close in positive territory, ending the day up 10.54 points, or 0.14%, at 7,661.87.
"The reduction of the pound's Friday decline meant the FTSE lost some of its swagger," Mr Campbell added.
In stocks, Hays was on the rise after the recruiter said that profit is expected to come in slightly ahead of expectations after the firm booked a solid fourth-quarter performance.
The group said full-year operating profit is set to be "marginally" ahead of consensus, which is currently £240.9 million.
It came as Hays posted overall net fee growth of 14% in the final quarter of the year to June 30, and 15% on a like-for-like basis.
Shares closed up 16.4p at 207.6p.
Experian shares ended down, even as the credit-checking group reported an increase in sales for its first quarter, saying it is on track to meet its target for the year.
The firm reported a 9% rise in its total revenue for the three months ended June 30 at actual exchange rates. Shares closed down 13.5p at 1,907p.
Meanwhile, retailer The Works announced that it is set to list on the stock exchange to raise £65.2 million, valuing the firm at £100m.
Of the funding raised from the initial public offering (IPO), £28.5m will go to the company, and £36.7m to the selling shareholders, as well as the executives and senior management team.
The Works - which sells gifts, stationery and arts and crafts products - will list on the London Stock Exchange at a price of 160p per share.
Across Europe, France's CAC closed up 0.43% while Germany's DAX inched up 0.38%.
Brent crude was trading 0.86% higher at 75 US dollars a barrel.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Micro Focus up 57p at 1,278.5p, DCC up 255p at 7,155p, Burberry up 52p at 2,108 and Johnson Matthey up 85p at 3,665p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Randgold Resources down 92p at 5,480p, Imperial Brands down 33.5p at 2,869p, Whitbread down 40p at 4,000 and Sage Group down 6p at 619.4p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here