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Airlines and hotels bore the brunt of selling in London trade on Monday as concerns about the coronavirus’s spread in South Korea and Italy roiled markets globally.
EasyJet EZJ, -15.05% shares nosedived nearly 15%, PPHE Hotel Group PPH, -10.38% fell 11% and Budapest-headquartered Wizz Air WIZZ, -10.35% slumped 10%.
“At the early stage of the coronavirus story, long-haul carriers like International Consolidated IAG, -8.31% and Lufthansa LHA, -8.19% [felt] the pain on account of their routes to China, but now short-haul airlines are taking a beating too,” said David Madden, markets analyst at CMC Markets UK.
The British pound GBPUSD, -0.4090% traded just below the $1.29 level, while the yield on the 10-year gilt TMBMKGB-10Y, -9.04% fall five basis points to 0.52%. Yields move in the opposite direction to prices.
The FTSE 100 UKX, -3.43% dropped 3% to 7178.51, with all the major European stock markets also getting a hammering. The U.K. actually outperformed other markets, notably Italy I945, -5.11% which fell close to 5%.
