The Australian share market has lost about $34 billion in value leading up to ABC election analyst Antony Green calling the US election for Donald Trump.

ABC election analyst called the election for Mr Trump on Wednesday evening in the wake of the Republican scoring a series of surprising wins in battleground states including Florida and Ohio, and opening a path to the White House.

In a highly volatile day, the ASX 200 had an upbeat start, rising as much as 0.9 per cent to 5,314.

However, as vote counts started coming in, trade became more volatile, with swings deep into the red as Mr Trump clawed slightly ahead.

CMC market strategist Ric Spooner said traders generally took the view that a Trump win was bad for shares.

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"Rightly or wrongly, markets are going to be concerned about a Trump victory, particularly given the potential consequences for world trade and its impact on many large companies in the US stock market," he said.

"Like Brexit, the rally over the last two days increases the downside potential if Donald Trump does win the election."

At some points during the afternoon Australia's benchmark share index, the ASX 200, had slumped almost 4 per cent, but it pulled back the worst of those losses to finish 1.9 per cent lower to 5,157.

The Australian market's SPI 200 futures index was down 1.8 per cent.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, shares also tumbled. In Japan, the Nikkei slumped 5.8 per cent, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong sank 3.5 per cent.

US stock futures posted steeper and steeper declines as the day wore on. The Dow Jones mini slumped 5 per cent and was halted after hitting their limit threshold — the last time this occurred was during the Brexit referendum. It resumed trading shortly after.

The S&P 500 mini was down 4.6 per cent, while the Nasdaq slumped 4.8 per cent, indicating major selling off when Wall Street opens later in the day.

"Whatever the outcome, this is a horribly angry electorate," Daniel Alpert, managing partner at Westwood Capital in New York told Reuters.

"The markets will tank and then, those around Trump who have reasonable minds will script him with some pablum for the markets and calm them.

"But that is not the issue. The issue is that he cannot fulfil the goals of those who are in his crazy inner circle and, at the same time, truly address the interests of those who have risen up against the Washington consensus."

Mr Trump's strides took market participants by surprise and investors were propelled towards safe haven assets such as the Japanese yen and gold.

The Australian dollar fell 2 per cent to 76.1 US cents. Against the yen, it dropped 4.9 per cent to 77 yen.

Gold jumped more than 4.1 per cent to $US1,327 an ounce.

The spot gold price surged as early results made a Trump victory look increasingly possible. ( Supplied: Reuters )

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That made gold miners some of the very rare winners on the local share market, with Newcrest surging more than 9.8 per cent to $25.35

Elsewhere on the local market, the major miners were being flogged on concerns for global economic growth in the event of a Trump presidency.

BHP Billiton was off 3.2 per cent to $22.56, while Rio Tinto was down a smaller 1.9 per cent despite announcing the suspension of a key executive over an African payments investigation.

The major banks were swept downwards in the financial market turmoil, with all Big Four banks down over 1.5 per cent each. ANZ lost 2.1 per cent.

"Investors are particularly concerned about the prospect of an unchecked, progressive government," wrote analysts from RBC Capital Markets in a note to clients.

"Separately, after a rancorous electoral season, we are not alone in our hope that an uncontested outcome would allow the nation to move forward."