Tuesday 03 May 2016 8:53 am

At the open: European markets tumble, but the pound prances on

European markets opened down this morning as traders consolidated positions ahead of a glut of corporate results this week.

The FTSE 100 shot up by 16 points as bank holiday weekend trades become official, but then immediately plunged to stand down 0.4 per cent at 6,214 within the first hour of trading.

Over in Germany, the Dax sunk below the 10,000 point mark – a key psychological barrier – before traders decided they'd had enough of that and tried to nudge the index back into five-figure territory. At 8.30am it was down 1.25 per cent at 9,997.

German DAX 30 falls below 10,000 – Merck KGaA only advancer early Tuesday pic.twitter.com/jBuZ9SyYsV

— Carla Mozée (@MWMozee) May 3, 2016

With stocks faltering, and the US dollar coming under sustained pressure, the pound continued its impressive rally against the dollar. It smashed through the $1.47 barrier – climbing 0.5 per cent in early morning trading to $1.4747.

Sterling has strengthened to the tune of five per cent over the past four weeks after Brexit jitters had knocked 10 per cent off the value of the currency over the first quarter of the year.

HSBC held steady this morning, rising by 0.4 per cent to 454p on the FTSE 100 after it beat analysts expectations with a 14 per cent drop in profit before tax during the three months to March.

Standard Chartered was the worst performer on the blue chip index, off 3.7 per cent to 531p. Today's fall has reversed some of the gains made last week after it went back into the black in the first three months of the year but saw profits fall 64 per cent on last year.

Today's agenda of purchasing managers' index (PMI) data in in the UK, the Eurozone producer prices index (PPI) and the European Commission's spring economic forecasts should provide plenty to keep the market twisting and turning.