Pound hits lowest level since 1985

At one stage it hit $1.3305, a 10% plunge, and a low not seen since 1985.

Before the results started to come in the pound rose 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.

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, and we haven't even had the result yet," said Joe Rundle, head of trading at ETX Capital.

"It's looking more and more like a Leave win and these massive moves in sterling and stocks will only get bigger if that is the case," he added.

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.

As for shares, the markets are pointing to a 8% slump when the FTSE 100 opens on Friday.

In Tokyo the Nikkei 225 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.

In commodities, the price of gold jumped nearly 7% to $1,348.27 an ounce.

Earlier the FTSE 100 closed 1.2% higher to a two-month high of 6,338.1 points, with miners, banks and travel firms rising, as traders had expected a remain vote.

Wall Street also jumped in late trading, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 both closing 1.3% higher.

European markets were also optimistic, with the Dax in Frankfurt and the Cac 40 in Paris rising 1.8% and 2% respectively.

Brent crude rose sharply in late trading to end the day 2.1%, or $1.03 higher at $50.91 a barrel, while US crude added 98 cents to $50.11.

Higher oil prices bolstered shares in Shell, which closed up 3.1% in London, while BP was almost 1% higher.

Source: BBC News