Wall Street tumbles after Britons vote to leave EU

The US markets witnessed bloodbath on Friday with major indices snapping session with a cut of around four percent after Britain surprised markets by voting to leave the European Union. In a referendum, the British people voted 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the EU amid substantial turnout of more than 72 percent. While the so-called Brexit had been discussed intensely across the world in the run up to the poll, the actual decision to leave came as a surprise, sending the British pound to a 31-year low. Global markets were caught off guard and plummeted during the day. Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that he will step down in October. Cameron, who had strongly called for a ‘Remain’ vote, said the British people voted to leave the EU and their will must be respected.

Sentiments also remained dampened with report from the Commerce Department showing a bigger than expected drop in durable goods orders in the month of May. The Commerce Department said durable goods orders fell by 2.2 percent in May after jumping by 3.3 percent in April. Excluding orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders edged down by just 0.3 percent after rising by 0.5 percent in the previous month. A separate report from the University of Michigan showed a modest deterioration in consumer sentiment in the month of June.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 610.32 points or 3.39 percent to 17,400.75, Nasdaq declined 202.06 points or 4.12 percent to 4,707.98 and S&P 500 was down by 75.91 points or 3.59 percent to 2037.41.

The Indian ADRs closed in red; Tata Motors tumbled 2.90%, HDFC Bank declined 0.96%, Infosys shed 0.90%, Dr. Reddy's Lab decreased 0.74% and ICICI Bank was down by 0.53%.