Brexit negatively affects trading on global markets

Global stocks are marked for their worst daily loss ever due to the decision by Britain to leave the European Union.

World financial markets dived as official results of the referendum poll showed that 51.9 per cent of UK voters chose to leave the European Union while 48.1 per cent voted to remain in the bloc.

The Sterling crashed more than nine percent, its weakest level since 1985.

“Overall, the market is taking this very, very negatively if only for the fact that once again, once again in so many years we’ve face-slammed ourselves into yet another crisis. Markets were very, very bullish yesterday, we saw sterling trade up to almost 1.50 against the dollar, a six-month high. And now, gosh, what a difference a day makes. It’s shell shock, I think, is what we’re dealing with right now,” said Mike Ingram a marketing strategist at BGC Partners.

Thursday’s landmark referendum came with warnings from that a vote to leave would cause another rabble across global markets that would wipe trillions off valuations.

“We live in a much less predictable world than we thought and with this vote this morning, the level of unpredictability is going to get greater yet, and if Europe thinks it is going to simply walk away from what has just happened in Britain, it has got another thing coming. Because it’s interesting to note that although sterling is suffering badly, the euro is also down significantly against the dollar this morning,” Ingram added.

In emerging markets, the South African rand is down more than three percent as the US dollar rallies. Africa’s biggest stock market, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange opened sharply lower on Friday.

In Kenya, the country’s central bank said it is ready to intervene and minimize disruption in money markets.