Coronavirus fears infect stocks around the globe

FRESH fears about the growing severity of the coronavirus outbreak tore through global stock markets yesterday.

Equity markets in Asia, Europe and the US tumbled as the death toll from the outbreak hit 170 in China and the first person-to-person transmission was confirmed in America.

More than 7,700 cases have been confirmed in China, while the infection has spread to at least 15 other countries.

Major Asian stock markets slid into the red – with Japan’s Nikkei closing 1.7pc lower and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng falling 2.6pc.

The Chinese markets remain closed. And over on Wall Street last night, the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all fell between 0.5pc and 1pc in early trading.

Nestled between the two timezones, London’s premier indexes the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 were hit with many of the same concerns that the rapidly spreading virus could take a financial toll on China’s already fragile economy, which could drag down global growth and trigger a recession. Neil Wilson, an analyst at Markets.com, said: ‘Fears of a pandemic may be over-egging the pudding, but there is again a clear risk-off mood in the market.’

The Footsie ended 1.4pc lower, down 101.61 points, at 7381.96 The FTSE 250, which is less exposed to global events, gave up 0.82pc, or 277.11 points, to finish at 21291.88.

London-listed Carnival fell 5.1pc, or 170p, to 3168p, after one of its cruise ships was put into lockdown in an Italian port amid fears that two of the roughly 7,000 passengers could be carrying the virus.

As coronavirus fears knocked the price of oil 2pc lower to $58.69 a barrel, shares in BP sagged 2.3pc, or 10.8p, to 467.1p and rival Shell lost 3.7pc, or 78.5p, to end at 2046p, not helped by the energy giant also releasing disappointing figures.

Shares in Britain’s largest wealth manager St James’s Place inched up 1.6pc, or 18.5p, to 1160p, after its advisers brought in £2.4bn more from clients between October and December.

This left it overseeing funds worth a record £117bn by the end of a tricky year for the firm, which had to navigate Brexit and election storms as well as questions over its work culture and the perks it handed to staff.

Production at Russian steel maker Evraz rose to 3.4m tonnes in the final three months of 2019, 2.1pc higher than the previous quarter. This was helped by more steel being produced at a Siberian plant, which had a round of repairs in the summer, and it made 6.1pc more steel overall in 2019 than 2018 – a total of 13.8m tonnes.

Although the FTSE 100-listed group made early gains, these reversed by the close with shares finishing down 0.3pc, or 1p, to 368.4p. Over on the FTSE250, fellow metals group Centamin advanced 5.5pc, or 7.05p, to 135.7p as 2019 revenue jumped 9.1pc to £506m and production surged in the final three months of the year.

The bullish figures come weeks after it rebuffed a takeover approach by Canadian rival Endeavour Mining, which Centamin insisted would not be good value for shareholders.

Among the small-caps, shopping centre landlord Intu Properties, which owns Manchester’s Trafford Centre, sank 6.7pc, or 1.26p, to 17.71p after brokers at Citigroup cut its target price from 53p to a mere 1p per share and kept a ‘sell’ rating on its stock. London-focused estate agent

Foxtons blamed uncertainty surrounding the general election and Brexit for shaving 4pc off revenues last year.

Turnover came in at £107m in 2019, while the group said it took a £2.7m hit from a ban on letting fees paid by tenants which was introduced in June. Shares in the group rose 0.7pc, or 0.6p, to 82.2p. by Francesca Washtell