Asian stocks were up for the first time in three days on Tuesday and the pound and other currencies advanced as investors took advantage of lower prices to buy up assets following Britain's vote to exit the European Union.
The sterling rose to $1.3291, after falling to a three-decade low of $1.3122 on Monday, its weakest since 1985 and 1 percent against the yen, to 135.54 not far from Friday's 3-1/2 year low of 133.18.
The euro stood at 82.93 pence after topping a two-year peak of 83.79 pence EUR/GBP on Monday. It edged down slightly to $1.1060, not far above Friday's three-month low of $1.0912 after the British vote.
Kathy Lien, managing director of foreign exchange strategy at BK Asset Management, "In the near term, risk aversion and market uncertainty makes the euro less attractive to investors.”
Government bond yields pushed deeper into negative territory with yields on ten-year and 20-year Japanese debt plunging to fresh record lows in anticipation of yet another round of global policy easing by major central banks.
Markets
European markets looked set to follow Asian stocks higher, according to financial bookmakers and U.S. stock futures rose 0.8 percent, suggesting a stronger opening on Wall Street after a brutal two-day slide.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1 percent, a small but impressive turnaround which saw the Japanese stocks rally more than 3 percent from the day's lows, pulling other Asian markets higher. The Nikkei was up 0.6 percent by early afternoon.
Crude oil prices regained some of their overnight losses after tumbling nearly 3 percent on Monday.