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News that the U.K. Brexit minister has quit sent a ripple of shock through European stock markets on Thursday. Dominic Raab announced his decision on Twitter a day after U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May got her draft plan to exit the European Union approved, but in a decision that split her cabinet. As the British pound
GBPUSD, -1.7397%
plunged on the news, the FTSE 100 index
UKX, -0.05%
rose 0.3%, but banks pulled in the other direction, with Royal Bank of Scotland PLC [S: rbs]
RBS, -7.34%
slumped nearly 7%, while European banks such as Deutsche Bank AG
de:db
down 1.8%, and the Stoxx Europe 600 index
SXXP, -0.64%
down 0.4% as the banking sector slumped. Carlo Alberto De Casa, chief analyst at ActivTrades, said the market reaction shows fears of growing risk for the government “with Theresa May’s majority now looking extremely vulnerable. Moreover, this departure could put at risk the Brexit deal and traders are selling the British currency due to growing uncertainty about the future of the U.K.”
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