2016-06-24 06:14:53
The London stock market has plunged more than 8% in the wake of the UK's vote
to leave the EU.
In the opening minutes of trade, the FTSE 100 index fell more than 500 points
to 5,808.72.
Banks were especially hard hit, with Barclays and RBS falling about 30%.
Earlier, the value of the pound fell dramatically as the referendum outcome
emerged. At one stage, it hit $1.3305, a fall of more than 10% and a low not
seen since 1985.
The Bank of England said it was "monitoring developments closely" and would
take "all necessary steps" to support monetary stability.
Oil prices have also fallen sharply in the wake of the referendum outcome, with
Brent crude down 5.2%.
The price of Brent crude fell by $2.68 to $48.24 a barrel, its biggest fall
since February. At the same time, US crude was down 5.4%, or $2.69, to $47.52 a
barrel.
'Once-in-a-lifetime moves'
Before the results started to come in, the pound had risen as high as $1.50, as
traders bet on a Remain victory.
But following early strong Leave votes in north-east England, it tumbled to
$1.43 and then took another dive after 03:00 BST as Leave maintained its lead.
The move in sterling is the biggest one-day fall ever seen.
A weaker pound buys fewer dollars or other foreign currencies, which makes it
more expensive to buy products from abroad. However, it should benefit
exporters as it makes their goods cheaper abroad.
Against the euro, the pound dropped 7% to about 1.2085.
The euro also fell 3.3% against the dollar, its biggest one-day fall since the
currency's inception.
Currency traders say these moves are more extreme than those seen during the
financial crisis of 2008.
"Never seen anything like it. These are once-in-a-lifetime moves, bigger than
Lehmans and Black Wednesday," said Joe Rundle, head of trading at ETX Capital.
"We're waiting for the big money to crank into action over the coming days and
even weeks, which will likely exert further downward pressure on sterling."
David Tinsley at UBS said there would be "a significant rise in economic
uncertainty" and that the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was
expected to take action, including interest rate cuts and an extension of its
quantitative easing programme.
"We expect the MPC will cut policy rates to zero and make further asset
purchases, in the first instance of 50-75bn, not later than February 2017," he
said.
Around midnight, sterling had risen to $1.50 after leading Leave campaigner
Nigel Farage said it looked as though Remain had "edged" the vote.
But those gains were short-lived as the first results showed surprisingly
strong votes to leave the EU.
"The Bank of England is monitoring developments closely," the Bank said in a
statement.
"It has undertaken extensive contingency planning and is working closely with
HM Treasury, other domestic authorities and overseas central banks. The Bank of
England will take all necessary steps to meet its responsibilities for monetary
and financial stability."
'Nervous moves'
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 share index has fallen by more than 8%, with the yen
up 5% as investors piled into the Japanese currency, which is seen as a safe
haven.
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) said it stood ready to supply money to the markets if
necessary.
"The BoJ, in close co-operation with relevant domestic and foreign authorities,
will continue to carefully monitor how the [UK referendum] would affect global
financial markets," the Bank's governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, said in a statement.
Japan's finance minister, Taro Aso, said he was ready to respond to movements
on the currency market if necessary to prevent "extremely nervous moves".
A increase in the value of the Japanese yen hurts the country's exporting
companies.
In commodities, the price of gold jumped nearly 7% to $1,348.27 an ounce.
1971 Pound moves 3.4% after Nixon Shock -- cancellation of the direct
international convertibility of the United States dollar to gold.
1 November 1978 4.3% "Winter of discontent" shakes global investors confidence
in UK's economy.
16 September 1992 4.29% when the UK exited the exchange rate mechanism.
20 Jan 2009 Pound slides 3.9% at the peak of the financial crisis following the
demise of Lehman Brothers.
Source Bank of New York Mellon