(\W*?) # this shouldn't be necessary since whitespace should have been slurped on previous line but this shouldn't hurt either

##</code><code>##

	  	(\s*?) # this shouldn't be necessary since whitespace should have been slurped on previous line but this shouldn't hurt either

##</code><code>##

my $test = '{}[]£$%';
my $match = ($test =~ m/(\W*)/)[0];
print $match;

__OUTPUT__
{}[]£$%