Pound Plunges on U.K. Vote to Leave EU

Britain's vote to leave the European Union battered the British pound by more than 11% Thursday night and into Friday morning, sent stocks in Europe and Asia tumbling and pointed to a day of steep falls across the world's financial markets.

It was a brutal drubbing for investors who had stacked up bets that the U.K. would choose to stay.

London's FTSE 100 and the Stoxx Europe 600 both plummeted over 8% in the early minutes of trading. Stocks in Ireland, a large trading partner with the U.K., were down nearly 17%. Futures markets pointed to the S&P 500 opening down as much as 5%, the daily limit. Changes in futures don't necessarily reflect market moves after the opening bell.

"Traders are choking on a fishbone this morning," Alex Dryden, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

The pound traded as low as $1.3230 in London's early hours, as a pink-fringed dawn rose over the city and the British Broadcasting Corp. called the referendum for Leave. That was the lowest level against the dollar since 1985, and an epic move for a developed-market currency just a day after reaching its highest level of the year. The pound edged back up and was at $1.3640 by 8 a.m. London time, ahead of a speech by Prime Minister David Cameron. Just hours before, it had peaked above $1.50.

Nothing was spared from the tumult. Brent, the international oil price gauge, shed over 5% to $48.33 a barrel in early trade on Friday. London copper prices dropped nearly 3% to $4,643.50 a metric ton.

Bank stocks in Europe were down over 10%, while real estate shares fell 13.4%.

Kosaku Narioka, Chao Deng, James Glynn contributed to this article.

Write to Mike Bird at [e-mail], Georgi Kantchev at [e-mail] and Riva Gold at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 24, 2016 04:05 ET (08:05 GMT)

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