Global stocks, sterling climb as polls flag UK to stay in EU

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York March 11, 2016. REUTERS

SYDNEY: Global share markets rallied while safe-haven debt wilted in Asia on Friday after polls suggested Britain had voted to remain in the European Union, removing the latest threat to the future of the bloc and its single currency.

Sterling led the charge with a rush to $1.5022, a high for the year so far, while the yen and Swiss franc faded as investors embraced riskier assets.

The dollar nudged up to 106.45 yen , while the euro was also a touch firmer at $1.1403 an hour after voting in the referendum closed.

Futures for Japan's Nikkei rose 0.6 percent from its U.S. close and 2.6 percent above the Japan-listed Nikkei futures' close the previous day, while EMINI futures for the S&P 500 added another 0.4 percent, having climbed 1.76 percent on Thursday.

Financial markets have been racked for months by worries about what Brexit, or a British exit from the European Union, would mean for Europe's stability.

The "Remain" camp had an eight-point lead, according to a poll by Ipsos MORI, the firm's chief executive said on Thursday, shortly after voting on EU membership ended.

Still, a YouGov poll showed the result could yet be nail-bitingly tight with i52 percent of respondents saying they voted to remain in the EU while 48 percent voted to leave.

Official results will start to trickle out over the next few hours and are likely to show very mixed results, keeping investors on edge.

Betting markets seemed a lot more sure of the outcome, with the implied probability of a remain vote hitting 86 percent on Thursday, according to Betfair betting odds.

"You saw the betting odds shift very firmly in favour of remain, so not surprisingly all risk assets are up," said Su-Lin Ong, a senior economist at RBC Capital Markets in Sydney. "Right now it is hard to fight the momentum."

Wall Street had already moved to price in a "remain" vote and the Dow ended Thursday up 1.29 percent, while the S&P 500 rose 1.34 percent and the Nasdaq gained 1.28 percent.

Should Britain stay it would also remove one hurdle to another hike in U.S. interest rates since Federal Reserve Chief Janet Yellen had cited Brexit as a threat to the world economy in general.

While all of that led to a pullback in safe-haven government debt, losses were not especially large as there are plenty more risks to the global outlook, from a slowing U.S jobs market to financial strains in China.

Yields on U.S. 10-year Treasuries edged up 3 basis points to 1.77 percent, but that compares with a high early in the year of 2.24 percent.

Commodity bulls were cheered that at least one threat to global growth looked to have passed and pushed up base metals and oil prices.

U.S. crude gained 26 cents to $50.37 a barrel in early trade Friday, after Brent crude ended Thursday up $1.26 at $51.14 a barrel.- Reuters