Stock markets from Tokyo to London collapsed on Friday as the UK’s major media networks projected a victory for the "Leave" campaign, with most votes counted in Britain’s referendum on European Union membership.
The British pound plunged 10 percent, the most since 1985, the euro fell the furthest since its introduction in 1999, while the Japanese yen had its biggest surge since 1998.
"Investors are just trying to get out. You sell first and ask questions later. There was a massive miscalculation of risk and now you're seeing all that unwind," head of investment strategy at Perpetual Ltd. in Sydney, Matthew Sherwood, told Bloomberg.
Oil fell to $47 per barrel. Gold soared along with US Treasuries as panicked investors sought safe haven from the markets.
"All hell is breaking loose," Bloomberg quotes Vishnu Varathan, a senior economist in Singapore at Mizuho Bank Ltd as saying. "The only sure [thing] is you buy yen, you buy US Treasuries, you buy gold, you sit tight."
An appetite for riskier assets on the market has built up as polls suggested that the chance of Britain's exit from the EU was unlikely. Oddsmakers had put the chances of Brexit at one in four.
Global central banks, government officials and financial experts had warned that Brexit would lead to market volatility. (RT)
