Investors welcomed the French election results which came in on Sunday night as Emmanuel Macron's qualification for the presidential run-off in May provides hope that he can win out over his anti-EU rival Marine Le Pen.

France woke up to having Macron and Le Pen racing each other in the second-round runoff that will decide the leading EU member country’s presidency on May 7. The euro and most stock markets surged after the results came in.

A Macron presidency is seen as the most market-friendly result. The centrist and former investment banker is pro-Europe, while nationalist Le Pen has said she favors France leaving the EU. Investors fear the consequences of "Frexit" following Brexit.

The euro climbed to a five-month high against the US dollar on Monday, with the currency surging 1.31 percent as of 9:25 GMT. Its rise came ahead of a European Central Bank policy meeting on Thursday.

European shares rallied as well. Shares in French companies and banks saw the biggest gains across the region.

France's benchmark CAC 40 opened 200 points higher and rose 4.4 percent as of 9:25 a.m. GMT on Monday. The UK's FTSE added 1.8 percent, while Germany's DAX was up more than 2.8 percent.

Meanwhile, safe haven assets as French bonds narrowed to a four-month low as borrowing costs fell sharply following the result, which eased fears of a Eurozone breakup. At 9:25 a.m. GMT, the yield of 10-year French government bonds had fallen by about 0.85 percent to the lowest level since January.

“The first-round presidential election lowered worries over a Frexit, which would bring up market risks, while safe haven investments sank. Global markets rose up, with the exception of Chinese markets,” said Yu Tianyu, founder of private equity firm Beijing Jinsi Asset Management Company and financial Q&A App Yewen.

Chinese stocks defied the trends elsewhere in the world by closing lower, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 1.37 percent at 3,129.53 points. The smaller Shenzhen Component Index closed 2.16 percent lower at 10,091.89 points, while the ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, ended 1.58 percent lower to close at 1,809.91 points on Monday.

Yu attributed this to the effects of market regulation. "A-shares should have opened higher, and then gone back to normal reacting to the results. However, China recently has tightened its financial regulations, while A-shares are now going through an adjustment period after a recent rise, hence the independent performance from global markets on Monday,” he said.