BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks edged higher on Monday as uncertainty over a Brexit trade deal battered the pound.
Traders have started pricing in the prospect of a 'no deal' outcome to EU-UK trade negotiations after the Sun newspaper reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson was ready to walk away from negotiations 'within hours' amid stubborn differences over fishing rights in U.K. waters, fair competition and ways to solve future disputes.
Johnson will call time on a Brexit-deal if Brussels refuses to budge from their 'outrageous' demands, it was said.
The benchmark FTSE 100 rose 20 points, or 0.3 percent, to 6,571 after climbing 0.9 percent on Friday.
Countrywide shares jumped as much as 20 percent as property firm Connells upped its offer for its rival by 30 percent to 325 pence per share.
Miniature figurines maker Games Workshop rallied 3 percent after announcing it expects a jump in sales and pretax profit for the first half of fiscal 2021.
Land Securities, a commercial property development and investment company, tumbled 3.2 percent after announcing an acquisition.
In economic releases, U.K. house price growth increased at a faster pace in November, data released by the Lloyds Bank subsidiary Halifax and IHS Markit showed.
House prices grew 1.2 percent in November from October, when prices were up 0.3 percent. Economists had forecast prices to climb 0.5 percent.
In three months to November, house prices advanced 7.6 percent from last year after climbing 7.5 percent in three months to October. This was the strongest growth since June 2016.
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