London — After a relief rally fuelled by polls projecting an easy victory for French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, a win for his anti-euro rival Marine Le Pen would likely rock equity markets that are already pricing out risks to the region’s stability. With the poll margin wider than for the Brexit referendum and the US election, such an improbable win for Le Pen could lead to losers and bigger losers in the immediate aftermath, analysts and money managers warn. Markets would also see a resurgence in volatility. "The difficulty with the victory of Le Pen is that the political risk would increase quite dramatically so all the high-beta sectors will suffer," says Vincent Durel, a Paris-based portfolio manager at Fidelity International, referring to shares deemed most sensitive to market swings. His firm oversees $294bn globally excluding the US. "The defensive stocks may benefit — in relative terms because I think they will all go down in absolute terms." Polls are showing ...
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