LONDON, April 12 Reuters The pound rose on Monday as some UK lockdown measures were eased, recovering some of last weeks losses, but analysts cautioned that the boost to sterling from being ahead in the vaccine race could be shortlived as other countries catch up.

Englands shops, pubs, gyms and hairdressers reopened after three months of lockdown.

At 1427 GMT, the pound was at 86.68 pence per euro, up 0.2 on the day but still weaker than when it hit a oneyear high of 84.720 this time last week.

Against the dollar, the pound was up around 0.3 at 1.3746 .

Weve known about April 12 for some time but there were some doubts, I think, in investors minds as to whether the UK would actually open for business today, and it does appear that retail is up and running, so I think thats generated some sterling demand today, said Neil Jones, head of FX sales at Mizuho.

But, he said, the socalled vaccine trade would not last, as other countries catch up with the UK in easing lockdowns over the longer term.

The UKs vaccine rollout one of the fastest in the world helped give the pound its best quarter since 2015 in the first three months of 2021.

That trend reversed last week, with sterling suffering a net 2.1 weekly loss against the euro a move which market participants said was amplified by a squeeze of europound short positions.

Speculators net long position on the pound versus the dollar shrank in the week to April 6, weekly futures data from CFTC showed. The market has…