European Market Reactions as London Opens Post "Brexit" Decision

Talking Points:

- Currencies slightly balance on London open as desks go online

- “Risk off” flows seen across the board as the FTSE 100, DAX 30 open lower by more than 7%

- More than half of the FTSE 100 stocks failed to open for trade initially

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European desks opened to a new reality today as the UK voters cast their votes and decided to “Brexit” from the European Union. The final results showed the “Leave” camp prevailed by 51.9% to 48.1% margin.

The market has seen extreme moves, and indeed “risk off” is apparently the order of the day. The FTSE 100 and DAX 30 both opened lower by more than 7% before stabilizing slightly after. This marked the worst drop for the FTSE 100 since 2008, and more than half of the stocks on the index failed to open initially. UK bank stocks took a major hit with Lloyds showing a drop of -30% while RBS was down -34%.

Currencies stabilized somewhat in the aftermath of some extreme moves as the British Pound and the Euroare seeing a bounce higher versus the US Dollar at the time of writing (The GBP/USD set a low around 1.32, while the EUR/USD traded near the 1.09 handle).

Yen strength has halted somewhat as well, while the sentiment linked Australian Dollar bounced from around the 0.73 handle.

Volatility is expected to remain extremely elevated, which might suggest that trading this environment should be approached with caution (if at all)

FTSE 100 (CFD: UK100) 5-Minute Chart: June 24, 2016