Global markets tumbled yesterday, with increasing fears of possible economic damage due to the rapid spread of the Coronavirus, which caused the reluctance of high-risk assets, while European shares wiped out about 180 billion euros of their market value. During the trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 447.24 points, or 1.54 percent, to 28,542.49 points, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index opened 48.31 points, or 1.47 percent, to record 3247.16 points, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 222.45 points, or 2.39 percent, to 9092.46 points.
On the other hand, European shares fell more than 2 percent yesterday due to potential harm to business from the rapidly spreading coronary virus, after the world's second-largest economy increased travel bans and extended the Lunar New Year holidays.
According to "Reuters", the losses included more than 97 percent of the shares on the Stoxx 600 index, many of which fell from record highs, erasing around 180 billion euros of the market value of the European stock index.
The shares of luxury products manufacturers, airlines and hotels, which is witnessing a great demand of Chinese consumers, the largest land affected. It lost a major luxury products manufacturers in Europe more than $ 50 billion of market value since the start of the spread of the virus last week. Most of the indicators fell major countries in Europe more than 2 percent, while the loss of all regional sectors 1 percent at least.
The decline in the German DAX index nearly 3 percent, while the CAC saw France's worst days in four months almost, as revealed shares "LVMH" and "Christian Dior" and "Hermes" and "Kering" owner's "Gucci" more than 3.6 percent.
Other luxury watch stocks, such as the Burberry Group, Moncler, Swatch and Richemont, the Swiss watchmaker, lost between 2.5 and 4.8 percent. The Euro Stoxx 50 volatility index, the "measure of fear" for European investors, jumped to its highest level since December 3. In Asia, the Nikkei hit its biggest daily loss in five months yesterday as tourism-related stocks came under pressure amid fears that the spread of the Coronavirus in China would be more lethal and harder to contain than previously thought. Nikkei fell 2.03 percent, the largest percentage loss since August 26, to close at 23,343.51 points, the lowest closing level since January 8. The broader Topix index fell 1.61 percent to 1702.57 points. China extended the Lunar New Year holiday, closed down more major companies, and asked its employees to work from homes in an effort to contain the spread of the disease after the number of its victims rose to 81.
And the sub-index of airline stocks fell on Topix 3.4 percent, its lowest level since May 2017. "Anna Holdings" shares fell 3 percent, and Japan Airlines fell 3.9 percent.
On the other hand, "AIRTH" stocks of protective clothing and "Airtech Japan", which manufacture hospital equipment to prevent the spread of infection, rose by the permissible daily limit, the first recorded an increase of 23.1% and the second 17.1%, respectively.
The Dubai index tumbled 1.2 percent to 2789 points, Dubai Islamic Bank lost 1.7 percent, and Emirates NBD fell 1.1 percent in the wake of a fourth-quarter net profit decline of 15 percent, due to an increase in provisions for impairment. The Abu Dhabi index fell 1.2 percent to 5167 points, led by First Abu Dhabi Bank, whose share declined 1.4 percent before its board meeting to approve the financial results.
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank shares fell 2.8 percent after it announced that the fourth-quarter net profit amounted to 1.05 billion dirhams (286 million dollars), down from 1.24 billion from a year ago.
Qatar’s index fell 0.9 percent to 10489 points after Qatar National Bank lost 1 percent and Commercial Bank’s share went down 2 percent.
The Bahrain index fell 0.1 percent to 1647 points. The Muscat index lost 0.3 percent to 4,071 points. The Kuwait index fell 1 percent to seven thousand points.
