Brexit impact: European markets suffer heavy sell-off; London stocks tank over 8%

London stocks were in the frontline of the fall-out from the vote to leave with FTSE registering over 8 percent losses.

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi/London: Europe`s main stock markets registered a steep fall of ten percent at the opening as markets went into meltdown after Britain voted to leave the European Union.

London stocks plunged around eight percent in opening deals Friday, with share prices of banks and housebuilders collapsing by about a third after Britain voted to leave the EU.

The British capital`s FTSE 100 index shed 7.7 percent to 5,851.01 points shortly after the start of trading, with housebuilder Taylor Wimpey losing 32 percent, and Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland each shedding roughly 28 percent.

Investors were clearly wrong-footed by the vote outcome with stock markets and the pound  dropping to 11 percent –its lowest level in over three decades.

German stocks too plunged 9.94 percent on Brexit vote.

The German blue-chip DAX 30 index opened 9.94 percent lower at 9,273.62 points and quickly sank to an intraday low of 9,226.15 on the outcome of the British EU referendum, with banking stocks Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank down around 17 percent.

In the Asian market, Tokyo`s benchmark stock index nosedived almost eight percent after Britain`s decision to leave the EU sparked an avalanche of selling and wild swings on currency markets.

The Nikkei 225 plunged 7.92 percent, or 1,286.33 points, to 14,952.02 in its biggest one-day fall since Japan`s 2011 quake-tsunami disaster.

With Agency Inputs