The pound hit a fresh five-month peak above $1.30 yesterday on renewed Brexit optimism after Prime Minister Boris Johnson requested another extension to Britain’s scheduled departure from the European Union.

In afternoon trading, the pound had reached the highest level since May at $1.3013. It later stood at $1.2993, up from $1.2984 late in New York on Friday. The euro was down at 85.92 pence.

Mr Johnson was yesterday attempting again to push his EU divorce deal through Parliament and avoid the political damage of delaying Brexit beyond next week.

Lawmakers on Saturday mandated the prime minister to break his promise and send a letter to Brussels asking for more time.

The pound had already struck five-month highs last week on optimism over Mr Johnson’s Brexit agreement with Brussels.

Since spiking above $1.30 in the morning London session, sterling has wobbled around that level.

Yet the currency is attracting demand as traders buy on the dips, according to Maurice Pomery, who is head of trading firm Strategic Alpha.

Elsewhere, Asian equity markets mostly rose but there was little major movement in reaction to China’s top trade negotiator Liu He saying at the weekend that Beijing and Washington had made “substantial progress” towards wrapping up a partial trade deal announced earlier this month.