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France - UK

Brexit vote shows lack of trust in EU – French FM

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Friday bemoaned Britain's "sad" decision to leave the EU, saying Europe must win back the trust of its people. 

Vote leave posters are seen in a window in Chelsea, London, Britain, June 23, 2016.
Vote leave posters are seen in a window in Chelsea, London, Britain, June 23, 2016. Reuters/Toby Melville
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"Sad for the United Kingdom. Europe carries on but it must react and win back the trust of its people. It is urgent," he tweeted.

Germany and Brexit

Meanwhile ,German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he regretted Britain's decision to leave the EU, calling it a "sad day for Europe".

"The early morning news from #GreatBritain are truly sobering. It looks like a sad day for #Europe +the #UnitedKingdom," Steinmeier wrote on Twitter.

EU Parliament President Martin Schulz said he would speak with German Chancellor Angela Merkel "on how we can avoid a chain reaction" of other EU states following.

"The chain reaction that is being celebrated everywhere now by euroskeptics won't happen," he said.

The EU was the biggest single market in the world and "Great Britain has just cut its ties with that market," Schulz said.

"That'll have consequences and I don't believe other countries will be encouraged to follow that dangerous path."
"I am not shocked," he said of the results of the British referendum, adding: "We were prepared."

Financial market reaction

The financial markets reacted with disbelief and shock hit financial trading rooms on after the final decision was announced sparking upheaval across Asian markets.

Sharemarkets in the region spiralled into the red after early forecasts during morning trade that Britons would choose to stay in the grouping gave way to results pointing towards an exit.

"We all read the same information, we all watch the same screens and clearly the betting companies didn't have this one," Westpac bank's global FX strategy head Robert Rennie told French news agency AFP of the result, which saw the Australian market dive almost four percent at one point.

"The polls didn't have this one and much of the economic and strategy community, including myself to be fair, didn't have this one as well.

"So I think this (mood) is one of disbelief that this could happen right here, right now."

In Tokyo, Yosuke Hosokawa, who heads Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank's currency sales team, said he had not seen "such a chaos in a while" as the British pound plummeted in response to the result.

Tokyo's Nikkei index nosedived almost eight percent while the yen jumped as taders rushed into safe-haven currencies.

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