Flash: Pound / Euro exchange rate in aggressive sell-off; GBP-EUR 0.9 pct in the red, is Vodafone behind today's sell-off

The pound to euro exchange rate is 0.9 pct in the red at 1.1659 at 16:18 in London.

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Kathy Lien at BK Asset Management, say movements in the EUR-GBP pairing are likely behind a broader GBP sell-off:

"UK consumer prices increased more than expected but the GBP was driven lower by EUR/GBP buying."

FX Market Alerts have meanwhile reported that the Vodafone acquisition may be behind heavy sterling selling:

"The market is citing the Vodafone deal for Kabel Deutscheland as the likely reason EUR/GBP is so well supported. However, had the commercial bids held off, we suspect they would have got their EUR's at a much cheaper level, especially with some decent size sell stops noted through .8460 as of last week.

"Cable is now extending through to fresh lows on the day, but as we alluded to earlier, much of the direction here is coming from EUR/USD, which now seems to have given up on 1.3400 and is testing back to 1.3370."