KUALA LUMPUR: Britons' decision to exit the European Union on Friday whipsawed key European and Asian markets and sent the pound to the lowest since 1985 while at Bursa Malaysia, the FBM KLCI lost six points.

European shares, led by the region's banks, felt the full force of the Brexit, falling by 7% as shock waves spread across global markets. Gold surged 4.4% or US$55.74 to US$1,312 as investorssought out safer commodities to avert the fallout.At 5pm, the KLCI was down 5.93 points or 0.36% to 1,634.05 but off the intra-day low of 1,612. Turnover was 2.23 billion shares valued at RM2.35bil. The broader market was weak with decliners beating advancers 760 to 179 while 277 shares were unchanged.The head of a bank-backed research house said it was still uncertain as to whether the sell down was finished in Malaysia and described it as an issue of sentiment.He pointed out Malaysia's trade ties with the UK and are only less that 2% of the GDP although the FDI from the UK and to the UK is still substantial.“A clearer pictures should emerge by Monday. If the KLCI is still above the 1,600 level, then that shows it is quite resilient and that bodes well for the KLCI moving into the fourth quarter,” he said.Reuters reported that the sterling hit a 31-year low in its biggest-ever fall and Japan's Nikkei dropped 7.9%. In Europe, the slide in stocks wiped off about 650bil euros (US$726bil) from the market value of Europe's listed shares.The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 was down 7.3% at 1,261.23 by 0756 GMT after falling as low as 1,241.94, while the broader STOXX Europe 600 index was down 7.5%. Britain's blue-chip FTSE 100 fell 4.3%, with volumes hitting more than 100% of their 90-day daily average in just one hour of trading.The ringgit slumped against the US dollar and the Singapore unit. It was at 4.0920 to the greenback, down 1.88% on the day from the previous close of 4.0165. It ended at 3.0222 to the Singapore dollar from 3.0047.The ringgit surged against the tumbling pound to end at 5.6994 – a 4.04% increase – from the previous close of 5.9391. Its intra-day high was 5.4535. It rose to 4.5564 against the Euro from 4.5595.At Bursa, consumer stocks were among the top losers led by Nestle, which fell 56 sen to RM766.14, Carlsberg lost 48 sen to RM13, F&N erased 40 sen tp RM24.90 and Heineken was down 28 sen to RM15.12. However, BAT surged RM1.22 to RM51.Among the KLCI stocks, Tenaga Nasional lost 24 sen to RM14 and wiped out 2.31 points from the KLCI. Genting Bhd lost 31 sen to RM7.88 and Genting Malaysia 15 sen to RM4.35 and wiping out more than 3.4 points from the KLCI. Astro lost 11 sen to RM2.78 and YTL four sen to RM1.60.However, IHH Healthcare's 20 sen gain to RM6.70 added 2.81 points to the KLCI.Among the banks, Public Bank lost six sen to RM19.20, AmBank five sen to RM4.37, CIMB three sen to RM4.31 and Hong Leong Bank two sen to RM13.26 while Maybank was unchanged at RM8.20.US light crude oil tumbled US$2.22 to US$47.89 and Brent lost US$2.30 to US$48.61 tracking the plunge in commodities. SK Petro lost six sen to RM1.35 and Petronas Gas two sen to RM21.60 but Petronas Dagangan and Petronas Chemicals gained four sen each to RM23.44 and RM6.44.Crude palm oil for third-month delivery was unchanged at RM2,384 per tonne. KL Kepong fell 20 sen to RM23, PPB Group 10 sen to RM16.26 and IOI Corp one sen to RM4.34 but Sine Darby added four sen to RM7.49.As for telcos, Maxis fell five sen to RM5.80, Axiata was flat at RM5.50 and Telekom gained five sen to RM6.82. Digi advanced 15 sen to RM4.80 and added nearly two points to the KLCI.Among the key regional markets,Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbled 7.92 % to 14,952,02;Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 2.92% to 20,259.13;CSI 300 lost 1.29% to 3,077.16;Shanghai’s Composite Index lost 1.3% ro 2,854.29;Shenzhen Composite was down 0.76% to 1,900.60;Hang Seng China Enterprise lost 2.9% to 8,530.10;Taiwan’s Taiex ended down 2.3% to 8,476.99;South Korea’s Kospi skidded 3.09% to 1,925.24; andSingapore’s Straits Times Index ended down 2.09% to 2,735.39.