EU referendum: Pound hits lowest level since 1985

At one stage it hit $1.3305, a fall of more than 10%, and a low not seen since 1985.

Before the results started to come in, the pound had risen 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.

The move in sterling is the biggest one-day fall ever seen and London's main share index, the FTSE 100, is expected to open sharply lower, with indications of a fall of around 7%.

A weaker pound buys fewer dollars or other foreign currencies, which makes it more expensive to buy products from abroad. However it should benefit exporters as it makes their goods cheaper.

Against the euro, the pound dropped 7% to around €1.2085.

The euro also fell 3.3% against the dollar, its biggest one-day fall since the currency's inception.

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 worth noting that trading desks are not fully staffed and these are only the initial reactions," he added.

"We're waiting for the big money to crank into action over the coming days and even weeks, which will likely exert further downward pressure on sterling."

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.

'Nervous moves'

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 share index 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.

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) said it stood ready to supply money to the markets if necessary.

"The BoJ, in close co-operation with relevant domestic and foreign authorities, will continue to carefully monitor how the (British referendum) would affect global financial markets," the Bank's governor Haruhiko Kuroda said in a statement.

Japan's finance minister Taro Aso said he was ready to respond to movements on the currency market if necessary to prevent "extremely nervous moves".

A increase in the value of the Japanese yen hurts the country's exporting companies.

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

1971 Pound moves 3.4% after Nixon Shock -- cancellation of the direct international convertibility of the United States dollar to gold.

1 November 1978 4.3% "Winter of discontent" shakes global investors confidence in UK's economy.

16 September 1992 4.29% when the UK exited the exchange rate mechanism.

20 Jan 2009 - Pound slides 3.9% at the peak of the financial crisis following the demise of Lehman Brothers.

(BBC)