Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen will face one another in the final round of the French presidential election on May 7, according to exit polls.
Global markets breathed a sigh of relief to see establishment candidate Macron receive the largest portion of votes in the first round.
Centrist Emmanuel Macron of the independent En Marche party secured the lion's share of votes in Sunday's preliminary election at 23.7 percent, with the far-right's Marine Le Pen of France's National Front party trailing narrowly behind at 21.7 percent, according to Harris poll estimates. Separately, the French Interior ministry announced its final figures at 5 a.m. local time on Monday morning which showed that Emmanuel Macron had won 23.75 percent of the vote versus Le Pen's 21.53 percent.
Looking ahead, Macron is expected to win the second round of the French election with 62 percent of the vote versus 38 percent for Le Pen, according to a poll from Ipsos/Sopra Steria released on Sunday evening.
In a speech made after Sunday's exit polls were released, Le Pen vowed to defend France against globalization and declared that now is the time to free the French population from an arrogant elite.
Meanwhile, Macron told his supporters in Paris that he will seek to build a parliamentary majority as soon as Monday as part of his bid to become president and represent the voice of hope for both France and Europe.
Current French Socialist Prime Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, former conservative French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and losing Socialist contender Benoit Hamon have all now called on all democrats to rally behind Macron in the final round, according to Reuters.
"The first round is always kind of a protest vote ... And then you have tactical voting happening in the second round," Antonio Barroso, deputy director of research at Teneo Intelligence, told CNBC on Sunday.
The Republican party's Francois Fillon conceded at around 8:40 p.m. local time, saying that he was the sole person responsible for his defeat and adding that he also intends to vote for Macron as Le Pen, he said, would lead the country to failure.
The euro (Exchange: EUR=) reached a five-and-a-half month high against the dollar (STOXX: .DXY) when markets opened Sunday evening. The single currency jumped to $1.09395 in early trade after having closed at $1.0723, according to Reuters data. This represents a 2 percent jump so far on the day.