The New Zealand dollar jumped to a 13-month high of 73 US cents before tumbling to 71.75 cents as traders reacted in an illiquid market to results trickling out from the UK's referendum on whether to leave the European Union.
The kiwi dollar traded at 72.01 US cents as at 11:22am in Wellington from 71.80 cents late yesterday, and has traded in a range of 1.25 US cents since polling closed at 9am NZ time. The local currency surged as high as 50.08 British pence from 48.75 pence at 9am and was recently at 49.42 pence.
Markets are jittery watching the results, with increased confidence that Britons would vote to remain in the EU even though the most recent polls showed the outcome was too close to call and that there were enough undecided voters to swing the result either way. Among early regional results, 50.7 percent of voters in Newcastle voted to remain, which was seen by some as a slim margin, while in Sunderland, 61 percent voted to leave.
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