The Confederation of British Industry's (CBI) latest Distributive Trades Survey showed on Tuesday that the Retail Balance in the UK improved to 30 in October from 11 in September. This reading came in better than Reuters' estimate of 13.

Further details of the publication revealed that the Sales Expectations Balance advanced to 35 for November, compared to 29 for October. Finally, the stock levels in relation to expected sales dropped to a record low of -23.

Market reaction

The upbeat data provided a boost to the British pound during the European trading hours and the GBP/USD pair was last seen rising 0.4% on a daily basis at 1.1823.