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* Risk assets routed as Britain votes to leave EU
* Sterling suffers historic fall in massive selloff, yen
jumps
* European shares tumble, Asian shares follow
* U.S. bond yields fall most since 2009, pressure for Fed
cut
* Oil and commodities battered, gold jumps 6 pct
By Herbert Lash and Marc Jones
NEW YORK/LONDON, June 24 (Reuters) - Global capital markets
reeled on Friday after Britain voted to leave the European
Union, with $2 trillion in value wiped from equity bourses
worldwide, while money poured into safe-haven gold and
government bonds. Sterling suffered a record plunge.
The blow to investor confidence and the uncertainty the vote
has sparked could keep the Federal Reserve from raising interest
rates as planned this year, and even spark a new round of
emergency policy easing from major central banks.
The traditional safe-harbor assets of top-rated government
debt, the Japanese yen and gold all jumped. Spot gold rose more
than 5 percent and the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S.
Treasury note fell to lows last seen in 2012 at 1.5445 percent.
Stocks tumbled in Europe. London's FTSE .FTSE dropped 2.4
percent while Frankfurt .GDAXI and Paris .FCHI each fell 6
percent to 8 percent. Italian FTMIB and Spanish .IBEX
markets, and European bank stocks overall .SX7P , were headed
for their sharpest one-day drops ever.
Worries that other EU states could hold their own
referendums were compounded by the fact that markets had rallied
on Thursday, seemingly convinced the UK would vote to stay in.
Britain's big banks took a $100 billion battering, with
Lloyds LLOY.L , Barclays BARC.L and RBS RBS.L plunging as
much as 30 percent.
Stocks on Wall Street opened more than 2 percent lower but
cut losses after about an hour of trading. The Dow Jones
industrial average .DJI fell 340.24 points, or 1.89 percent,
at 17,670.83, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 42.11 points, or 1.99
percent, at 2,071.21 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
116.74 points, or 2.38 percent, at 4,793.31.
MSCI's all-country world stock index .MIWD00000PUS fell
3.5 percent.
Having campaigned to keep the country in the EU, British
Prime Minister David Cameron announced he would step
down.
Results showed a 51.9/48.1 percent split for leaving,
setting the UK on an uncertain path and dealing the largest
setback to European efforts to forge greater unity since World
War Two.
More angst came as Scotland's first minister said the option
of another vote for her country to split from the UK - rejected
by Scottish voters two years ago - was now firmly on the table.
The British pound dived by 18 U.S. cents at one point,
easily the biggest fall in living memory, to its lowest since
1985. The euro, in turn, slid 3 percent to $1.1050 EUR= as
investors feared for its very future.
Sterling was last down 7.8 percent at $1.3719 GBP= , having
carved out a range of $1.3228 to $1.5022. The fall was even
larger than during the global financial crisis and the currency
was moving two or three cents in the blink of an eye.
"It's an extraordinary move for financial markets and also
for democracy," said co-head of portfolio investments of
London-based currency specialist Millennium Global Richard
Benson.
"The market is pricing interest rate cuts from the big
central banks and we assume there will be a global liquidity add
from them," he added.
That message was being broadcast loud and clear. The Bank of
England, European Central Bank and the People's Bank of China
all said they were ready to provide liquidity if needed to
ensure global market stability.
The shockwaves affected all asset classes and regions.
The safe-haven yen jumped 3.6 percent to 102.29 per dollar
JPY= , having been as low as 106.81. The dollar's peak decline
of 4 percent was the largest since 1998.
That prompted warnings from Japanese officials that
excessive forex moves were undesirable. Traders said they were
wary of being caught with exposed positions if the global
central banks chose to step in to calm the volatility.
Emerging market currencies across Asia and eastern Europe
and South Africa's rand all buckled on fears that investors
could pull out. Poland saw its zloty PLN= slump 4 percent.
Europe's natural safety play, the 10-year German government
bond, surged to send its yields tumbling back into negative
territory and a new record low.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS slid almost 5 percent, Tokyo's Nikkei .N225
saw its worst fall since 2011, down 7.9 percent.
Financial markets have been gripped for months by worries
about what a British exit from the EU would mean for Europe's
stability.
"Obviously, there will be a large spill-over effects across
all global economies ... Not only will the UK go into recession,
Europe will follow suit," predicted Matt Sherwood, head of
investment strategy at fund manager Perpetual in Sydney.
BOND RALLY
Investors stampeded into low-risk sovereign bonds, with U.S.
10-year notes US10YT=RR gained two full points in price to
yield 1.521 percent. Earlier, the yield dipped to 1.406 percent,
only slightly higher than a record low 1.38 percent reached in
July 2012.
"Right now it's 'every man for himself' safety buying," said
Tom Tucci, head of Treasuries trading at CIBC in New York.
The rally even extended to UK bonds, despite a warning from
ratings agency Standard & Poor's that it was likely to
downgrade Britain's triple-A credit rating if it left the EU.
Yields on benchmark 10-year gilts fell 27 basis points to 1.0092
pct GB10YT=TWEB .
Across the Atlantic, investors were pricing in less chance
of another hike in U.S. interest rates given the Federal Reserve
had cited a British exit from the EU as one reason to be
cautious on tightening.
"A July (hike) is definitely off the table," said Mike
Baele, managing director with the private client reserve group
at U.S. Bank in Portland, Oregon.
Fed funds futures 0#FF: were even toying with the chance
that the next move could be a cut in U.S. rates.
Oil prices slumped by more than 4 percent amid fears of a
broader economic slowdown that could reduce demand. U.S. crude
CLc1 shed $2.12 to $47.99 a barrel while Brent LCOc1 fell as
much as 6 percent to $47.83 before clawing back to $48.60.
Industrial metal copper CMCU3 sank 3 percent but gold
XAU= galloped more than 6 percent higher thanks to its
perceived safe haven status.
Brexit graphic package http://tmsnrt.rs/1Ke31HF
Britain and the EU http://tmsnrt.rs/28QKboK
Market reaction http://tmsnrt.rs/28QKdwV
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(Editing by Catherine Evans and Nick Zieminski)