Pound lower vs broadly supported dollar; Euro plunges as Greek lawmakers angry at Tsipras

Sterling was lower against the greenback on Tuesday as uncertainty over Greece and yesterday's better-than-expected data on U.S. existing home sales spurred demand for a shelter.

GBP/USD hit 1.5764 during European morning trade, the pair's lowest since June 17; Cable subsequently consolidated at 1.5779, losing 0.27%.

Greek jitters negatively impacted the British currency.

As Reuters reported, Greek lawmakers had a negative reaction on Tuesday to concessions the Greek authorities offered in debt talks and parliament's deputy speaker warned the proposals would struggle to win approval, damping optimism that a deal to prevent Greece from defaulting will be concluded quickly.

If parliament does not support the latest offer, which included higher taxes and welfare changes and steps to curtail early retirement, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras might be forced to call a snap election or a referendum that would prolong the uncertainty.

"The prime minister first has to inform our people on why we failed in the negotiation and ended up with this result," Syriza lawmaker Alexis Mitropoulos told Greek Mega TV.

"I believe (the measures) are not in line with the principles of the left. This social carnage ... they cannot accept it."

The dollar also rose against the euro and the yen with EUR/USD losing 0.99% to trade at 1.1227 and USD/JPY rising 0.24% to 123.68.

The greenback has been buoyed as yesterday the National Association of Realtors reported that last month existing home sales added 5.1% to 5.35 million units from 5.09 million in April. Meanwhile, analysts had expected existing home sales to rise 4.4% to 5.26 million units in May.

The sound data drove optimism over the health of the economy and brought the U.S. interest rate hike back into investors' attention.

Neither euro, nor pound were impacted by the fresh data showing that eurogroup's PMI surged in June.

The Markit Composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which tracks manufacturing and service sector activity, climbed to 54.1 in June compared with 53.6 in May.

The French PMI data showed the country's manufacturing sector expanded in June for the first time since April 2014.

Germany's composite PMI climbed to 54.0 in June in comparison with 52.6 in May.

Elsewhere in the U.K., BBC News reported that the UK government's stake in Lloyds Banking Group has fallen below 17% after more shares were sold to investors.

The government originally owned a 41% stake in the bank, but started selling Lloyds shares in 2013. This latest sale means that about £11.5bn has been returned to the taxpayer so far.

The banking group received £22.5bn from taxpayers during the financial crisis.