A draft agreement between the UK and the EU has laid out a transitional period between the 29th March 2019 and December 2020 which is intended to ease Britain's departure from the bloc. Brexit negotiators, Michel Barnier and David Davis, also announced that an agreement had been reached on the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and vice versa, but that the key issue of how to treat Northern Ireland's border was still to be addressed. The news of progress sent sterling higher against many developed economy currencies - around 0.9 per cent against the US dollar and 0.75 per cent against the euro. The rise in sterling has caused a drop of around 1 per cent for the FTSE 100, however, as the internationally focused index saw revenues earned abroad diminished from higher exchange rates. European bonds were being sold, sending yields firmly higher as certainty over Brexit increased and demand for less risky assets fell.