TOKYO - The pound dived in early Asian trading Friday, tumbling from 2016 highs as initial results of Britain's European Union membership vote suggested the race was much closer than expected.
Sterling briefly dived to just below $1.43 from above $1.50 -- its highest this year -- while it dropped to 79.17 pence to the euro, from around 76 pence earlier Friday.
Britain's currency did a U-turn as results from Sunderland in the northeast showed voters there had opted to leave the 28-member EU by a significant margin -- 61% against 39% in favour of staying.
In neighbouring Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the margin of victory for the "Remain" camp was much smaller than expected, with just 50.7% of voters choosing to stay with the bloc.
The result of the vote will not be known until around 0800 GMT Friday.
However, markets had been growing increasingly confident that a so-called Brexit would be averted, although some analysts were concerned the markets could get it wrong.
In response to the initial vote results, the yen surged more than 2% on the dollar to just above 103 -- its highest levels since 2014 -- as traders flocked to safe-haven currencies.
Investors tend to buy the yen in times of uncertainty and turmoil.