A Conservative government with a strong majority, as had been predicted before the vote, would have given Prime Minister Theresa May a freer hand in Brexit negotiations to make the compromises necessary for a deal.
A party needs to win 326 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons to form a majority government.
Polls further predict that Labour won 34 additional seats and the Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems) have gained 6.
Labour has ruled out forming a coalition, while Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat leader, has also said his party would not repeat its painful experience of coalition government between 2010 and 2015.
Britain's Labour party urged Muslim voters to "play the system" by voting for its candidates and backing its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, in Thursday's election.
The BBC/Sky/ITV poll suggested the United Kingdom was heading for a hung parliament, with Conservatives 12 seats short of the 326 they need for an absolute majority in the Commons.
Sterling fell initially by more than two cents against the USA dollar as markets digested the prospect of extreme political uncertainty and even the risk of a second election this year, though the currency later recovered some ground.
Conducted for a consortium of United Kingdom broadcasters by interviewing voters leaving polling stations, it is regarded as a directional, but not exact, indicator of the result.
"Generally, on average, the polls tend to point toward a fairly small Tory majority, whereas the betting is more optimistic of May landing a majority of around 70 seats", said a betting expert at Ladbrokes, one of the UK's leading bookmakers.
Contrary to claims made by Theresa May and some senior Conservatives, officials within the EU Commission have no preference over whether it Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn becomes the next Prime Minister.
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If those results are replicated at the polls, the Conservatives would end up with an increased majority of about 50 seats, up on the 17 the party enjoyed previously.
Voting is over in the United Kingdom and the first exit polls were a big shock, not least to the markets.
Oh, and the former leader Menzies Campbell has already been on the television saying the party would not join another coalition with the Conservatives.
Rachel Sheard, who cast her vote near the site of the London Bridge attack, said the election had not gone as expected - and that it certainly wasn't about Brexit.
Eurocrats have been unable to pin down British ministers to a specific date due to the ongoing General Election campaign, but still want to get the talks under way in just over 10 days time.
But as many as one in five voters were still undecided, after the seven-week campaign was overshadowed in the later stages by two Islamist attacks that killed 30 people in Manchester and London.
This is when the real action takes place: the Conservatives, as the largest party, will meet with other parties to see if they can strike a deal.
"But equally it's quite hard to see how Labour could put together a coalition".
If the results are confirmed, it will be a huge embarrassment for May, who in April called a snap election three years ahead of schedule in the hope of gaining an even greater majority of seats to give her a stronger mandate for upcoming Brexit negotiations.
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