Today’s gains have added just over £33bn in value to London’s main stock markets.
Sterling GBPUSD, +1.2534% surged 2.7% to $1.348 after the exit polls predicted an 86-seat majority on Thursday night and held firm as the election results filtered through on Friday morning and confirmed Johnson was on course for a landslide victory. The jump was the largest one-day gain since January 2017.
The FTSE 100 is set to open slightly higher but could experience greater gains as London wakes up to Johnson’s victory.
Johnson secured a majority shortly after 5am GMT with a number of results still to come.
The strong majority gives Johnson the ammunition to get a Brexit deal through Parliament, avoiding investors’ fears of a no-deal Brexit or a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour government and providing much-needed certainty.
UBS Wealth Management economist Dean Turner said: “Just as Boris Johnson was desperately seeking his majority, this result would give the markets their ultimate wish: clarity. We’ve long said that sterling looks a very cheap currency. If Brexit is indeed completed by the end of January, we see the pound trading as high as 1.35 against the US dollar.”
