London — Stocks and sterling held their ground on Thursday as markets took the latest European terrorist attack, this time in London, one of the world’s financial capitals, largely in their stride. The FTSEurofirst 300 barely budged as London, Frankfurt and Paris started flat and the pound fared better than most as the dollar began to muscle higher again in the currency markets. The history of these attacks, including those in France, Germany and Belgium in 2016 as well those in London and Madrid more than 10 years ago, show little lasting effect on economic confidence or financial markets in isolation. Having weakened as much as 0.4% after news of the London attack which killed five, sterling held steady overnight and then climbed swiftly above $1.25 after more resilient than expected UK retail sales data. The dollar was also creeping higher again with attention firmly on Donald Trump’s first significant US policy test, as he looks to gets a healthcare bill passed in US Congress. "...
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