Investors go for London property and gold

Nervous American investors are exploring the London property market as a secure home for their wealth in the wake of Mr Trump’s victory, trends in internet traffic suggest. One London property firm, which specialises in the capital’s “prime” postcodes, said visits to its website from America had risen by 300pc after Mr Trump’s win.

The agent, London Central Portfolio, compared the interest in the capital’s property market with the flight to safe haven assets during the global financial crisis.

A spokesman said: “While it takes longer to buy property than to deploy capital into other safe havens such as gold and the yen, both of which have seen significant upticks, we anticipate a similar retrenchment into prime central London property.

“This will have echoes of the global financial crisis, when gold and central London property benefited most strongly from market uncertainty.

“We believe that, alongside Americans, other international investors will also be looking to London again as America and London’s major competitor, New York, suffers this new uncertainty and potentially inward-looking policies,” the spokesman said.

She added: “Middle Eastern investors in particular are already less comfortable investing in the US and will increasingly look to London, where attitudes remain more welcoming.”

Trump’s effect on the pound

Foreign currency firms experienced an early increase in inquiries which tailed off as customers realised that the impact of the election on both euro and dollar exchange rates was “negligible”, brokers said.

By noon on Wednesday the pound was about 0.5pc higher against the dollar and almost unchanged against the euro. Against the yen the pound was around 2pc lower.

“The movements are negligible, particularly compared to the swings we saw after the referendum,” said Alexandra Russell-Oliver of Caxton FX, the currency dealer.

“We did see some initial dollar weakness as the Trump victory took markets by surprise, but the presidential tone he took in his victory speech may have helped calm some of that.”

But commentators warned of future volatility. Ian Strafford-Taylor of rival firm FairFX said: “Initial reaction to the election result has been muted, although further currency swings can be expected. In the same way that the Brexit vote caused market turbulence, the US election could cause volatility for exchange rates, particularly in the short term.”

Volatility following Brexit caused a spike in the “spreads” charged by currency firms, with travellers experiencing differences between the “buy” and “sell” rates of 20pc or more.

This phenomenon emerges in periods of wild currency swings and was not in evidence yesterday, brokers said, although travellers were warned to stage their currency purchases.

“Holidaymakers looking to travel to the US should monitor rates throughout the coming days and lock them in when they are in favour,” said Mr Strafford-Taylor.

Against other popular currencies sterling rose, gaining 1pc against the Canadian and Australian dollars, for example, and 3pc against the South African rand.

Traditional safe havens attracted nervous savers’ money after the vote

Gold buyers come out at 3am

Sales of gold bullion and coins soared as investors dashed for safety in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory, dealers reported.

BullionVault, an online bullion market that holds gold on investors’ behalf, reported £4.1m of dealing in the three hours between 3am and 6am British time as certainty grew of the election outcome.

This was greater than the trading volume for the whole of the previous day. Buying outweighed selling by a ratio of three to one during this period, the broker said.

The day’s largest gold order was worth £515,000

One London property firm said visits to its website from America had risen by 300pc in the wake of Mr Trump’s win