European stocks lose $ 495bn amid fears of a new option
European acreage fell this Friday, the day all attention was focused on a new variant of COVID-19 found in South Africa. Concerns about new restrictions to contain this option, which appears to be more resistant to vaccines, have influenced investor sentiment.
The European benchmark Stoxx 600 shed 3.72%, its biggest drop since June 11, 2020. All in all, European stock exchanges liquidated almost 495 billion euros in one day.
All sectors in the Old Continent closed in the red, with particular emphasis on declines recorded in the tourism sector (8.79%), banking (6.88%), oil and gas (5.81%) and the automotive sector ( 5.85%). … The smallest fall on this day in red was recorded in the housing and communal services sector, which depreciated by 2.59%.
Carnival cruises spearheaded the fall of the Stoxx 600, falling 16.04% in London amid concerns over a new travel and leisure option. Wizz Air was the second to drop the most on the Stoxx 600 (15.23%), followed by British Airways owner IAG (14.85%). The fall in the aviation sector was notorious, with Lufthansa shares falling 12.8%.
Companies with other local businesses like Delivery Hero, which is focused on food delivery, or HelloFresh, have appreciated this. The first rose in price by 2.86%, the second – by 5.07%. German online fashion company Zalando posted 5.5% growth.
The Spanish IBEX Index posted the largest drop in any major European market, down 4.96%. The German DAX fell 4.15%, the French CAC 40 lost 4.75%, the FTSE fell 3.64%, the Amsterdam stock market fell 3.21% and Italy fell 4.6%. Thus, Lisbon followed the downtrend in the rest of Europe, dropping 2.43%.
