FX round-up: Corporate M&A puts a bid into the pound

These were the movements in the most widely-followed 10-year sovereign bond yields:

US: 1.58% (+3bp)
UK: 0.824% (-1bp)
Germany: -0.016% (-2bp)
France: 0.214% (-2bp)
Italy: 1.25% (-0bp)
Spain: 1.24% (+1bp)
Portugal: 3.13% (+0bp)
Greece: 7.1985 (+8bp)
Japan: -0.25% (+0bp)

Cable moved higher after news broke that Japan's Softbank had offered £23bn in cash to take-over ARM Holdings, which some observers will likely prove just the first deal of many.

Cable was trading up by 0.57% to 1.3263 as of 19:38 BST.

Also helping to give Sterling a boost, speaking on Monday morning the Bank of England's Martin Weale tempered speculation of an imminent large package of monetary stimulus when the Monetary Policy Committee next met.

On 15 July, in reference to the need for further stimulus, BoE chief economist Andy Haldane had said "I would rather run the risk of taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut than taking a miniature rock hammer to tunnel my way out of prison".

To take note of, there was little on the economic agenda for traders to focus on, although the US Treasury's report on monthly long-term capital flows was set for release at the close of trading on Wall Street.

Thus, Monday's main data point was the July NAHB homebuilders's survey out in the States, which edged down from a reading of 60 points in June to 59 in July (consensus: 61.0).

In that vacuum, dollar/yen extended its rally, rising 1.13% to 106.05, while euro/dollar was more staid, gaining 0.4% 1.1074.

The US dollar spot index was drifting lower by just 0.05% to 96.531 as of 19:45 BST.

Against the Turkish lira the greenback was to be seen 1.59% lower at 2.9676.