Ryanair and Dalata Hotel shares caught up in global virus sell-off
Ryanair and Dalata Hotel Group were among the Irish shares caught up in a global shares sell-off as fears increased that the spread of the coronavirus would dampen world growth and tourism.
European and Japanese stock markets fell sharply, with the Nikkei, Eurostoxx, and Ftse-100 indices shedding up to 2.25%.
In Ireland, Dalata shares slid by 5% and Ryanair and ferries-firm ICG fell by around 3%.
And the price of oil resumed its fall from last week, as Bent crude dropped by $1.66 to almost $59 a barrel, while investors sought out havens, helping push the Swiss franc and the price of gold higher.
In the US, the S&P 500 Index declined the most in almost four months, with energy and technology companies leading losses and the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly erased its 2020 advance.
China’s financial markets will remain closed until next Monday after authorities extended the Lunar New Year break by three days as they grapple with the worsening virus crisis.
Assets that track the country’s largest stocks took a nosedive, with the iShares MSCI China ETF dropping at least 3.4%.
News that China’s death toll from the coronavirus discovered at the end of last year has risen to 81 dragged down an index in London of of leisure and airline stocks, ending 2.6% lower for its worst day in more than three and a half years.
Roughly 6% has been wiped off the index since last week. The sector is exposed to a slowdown in the travel market because of the outbreak, with some standout individual losers including British Airways and Aer Lingus owner IAG, which dropped 5.4%, and China-exposed luxury brand Burberry, down 4.6%.
“This has the potential to really rattle markets. And with stock markets having been at or very near all-time highs before all this broke, this is a perfect selling opportunity,” Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson wrote.
“If politics is hard to grasp for most buy siders then virology is impossible--that is enough reason to see de-risking to happen; although I would still anticipate dips to be bought,” he said.
"The viral outbreak in China is precisely the kind of unforeseen event to generate heightened volatility, the market having shrugged off the US-China trade war and impeachment drama of late.
"Investors would be wise to anticipate further bad news on the virus, with infection tolls likely to rise, while any treatment is weeks away at the earliest," said Chris Beauchamp, analyst at online broker IG.
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