‘Global markets lost $2 trillion after Brexit’
Britain’s vote on Friday to leave the European Union cost global stock markets about $2 trillion in value, according to Reuters estimates.
European stocks took the brunt, falling up to 12 percent and the sterling plunging to a one-day record low in 31 years.
Italy's Unicredit fell 24 percent while Spain's Banco Santander slumped 20 percent.
Markets were caught off guard and the shockwaves from the decision affected all assets and regions.
The decision shaved off as much as £125 billion ($171 billion) on London’s FTSE alone, according to the digital global business news publication Quartz.
The figure is equivalent to more than 15 years of the UK’s EU contributions, judging from what Britain paid into the EU budget in 2015, the portal said.
The biggest losers were banks and homebuilders, some of which fell by more than 40 percent in early trading.
Lloyds, Barclays and RBS, some of Britain’s largest banks, plunged as much as 30 percent at the start of the day before recovering to a 19 percent loss.
The British pound dived to its lowest since 1985, losing around 10 percent of its value against the dollar before settling down 6 percent.
The battering forced Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney to try to assure the markets, saying Britain’s banks were sound while also acknowledging that markets would be affected by the decision.
"It will take some time for the United Kingdom to establish new relationships with Europe and the rest of the world,” Carney said.
A report commissioned by the CBI business lobby group had warned ahead of the vote that leaving the EU would cost the UK £100 billion but the real damage on Friday roundly surpassed that estimation.
The loss would be the equivalent of 5 percent of GDP by 2020 and would cause long-lasting economic damage from which the British economy would never recover, the analysis had warned.
The report had said Brexit would cause a serious shock to the UK economy that could lead to 950,000 job losses.
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