Traders Get Ready for a Long Night as May Faces Confidence Vote

(Bloomberg) -- While U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May gets ready for a confidence vote on her leadership, some traders are making plans for a late night at the office as the result comes in.

“We’ll be getting pizzas in and running two shifts to ensure we can continue to update and service our clients: one to cover the immediate result of the no-confidence vote and a second to come in later to cover the fallout and market reaction,” said Gearoid Keegan, senior treasury dealer on the Corporate & Institutional Treasury team in Dublin at Investec Plc. “Our colleagues in London will be doing the same.”

While it’s not unusual for trading floors to stay open for market events outside regular hours, the fact that tonight’s result is unlikely to bring clarity to Brexit regardless of the result means it will be different to other nights, he says.

“If May wins then we are back to where we were on Tuesday -- a deal that still can’t get through the Commons; if she loses, there are a number of potential outcomes, none of which get us closer to a resolution,” Keegan said. “In short, we expect the pound to remain vulnerable into the New Year.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Flanagan in Dublin at pflanagan23@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ambereen Choudhury at achoudhury@bloomberg.net, Anil Varma, Keith Jenkins

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