Markets plunged into turmoil by Covid fears

GLOBAL markets were plunged into turmoil as Covid cases surged in Europe and the US.

Wall Street followed European indexes into the red as fears rose that spiking infection rates will l ead to tougher restrictions, piling more pressure onto damaged economies and killing off more businesses.

The Dow Jones fell by 2.3pc, while the S&P 500 was down 1.9pc, and tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped by 1.6pc.

European continental bourses had also closed lower, with Germany’s Dax falling by a bruising 3.7pc after leaked comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel showed she had warned colleagues the ‘situation is threatening’ and the country is facing ‘very, very difficult months ahead’.

Italy and Spain, which were the hardest hit by the pandemic’s first wave, introduced wide-ranging measures that included new curfews and, for Spain, the triggering of emergency powers.

In London, the sell- off hammered travel and energy stocks, sending the FTSE 100 1.2pc lower, down 68.27 points, to 5792.01, while the FTSE 250 fell 1.4pc, or 256.27 points, to 17853.30.

British Airways- owner IAG (down 7.6pc, or 8.3p, to 100.7p), plane engine maintainer RollsRoyce (down 7.2pc, or 17.6p, to 226.1p) and Premier Inn- owner Whitbread (down 6pc, or 142p, to 2244p) were among the top bluechip fallers.

And on the FTSE 250 Tui (down 8.9pc, or 28.7p, to 294.2p), Carnival (down 10pc, or 102.3p, to 925.2p) and Cineworld (down 9.1pc, or 2.64p, to 26.54p) plunged as traders priced in the looming threat of greater restrictions both at home and made it less likely people will travel abroad. This also knocked oil prices by 3pc.

Brent crude was trading at $40.50 a barrel last night – and the drop dragged down BP (down 2.7pc, or 5.5p, to 200p) ahead of results today and Shell (down 2.6pc, or 24.8p, to 915.8p).

Even though policymakers and the public are bracing for a long and difficult winter, a ray of hope yesterday came from drugs giant Astrazeneca, which reported its experimental Covid vaccine had made more progress.

An i nterim study found the potential vaccine prompted participants’ immune systems to react against the virus.

This was found in both adults and the elderly – and there were reported to be ‘low levels’ of side effects, or what the scientists called ‘adverse reactions’.

The market cheered the news – sending Astrazeneca to the second highest spot on the FTSE 100 leaderboard. It rose 1.7pc or 134p, to 8077p.

An upgrade to ‘ buy’ from brokers at UBS sent education publisher Pearson to the top of the Footsie leaderboard. It rose 3pc, or 15.2p, to 527.6p as analysts said it could reap rewards from the US higher education sector.

Wagamama-owner The Restaurant Group and doorstep lender Provident Financial were boosted by investments from hedge fund Coltrane Asset Management.

Coltrane upped its stake in the Provvy (up 0.6pc, or 1.4p, to 229.6p) from 5.8pc to 6pc, and disclosed a 3.8pc holding in The Restaurant Group (up 5pc, or 2.2p, to 46p).

Student accommodation provider Unite Group and advertising behemoth WPP both started the week by announcing new appointments. Unite hired Richard Huntingford, the chairman of media group Future, as its chairman. Unite shares fell 1.9pc, or 17p, to 869p, while Future’s fell 0.5pc, or 10p, to 2015p.

And WPP has beefed up its board with Chinese technology expert and professor Dr Ya- Qin Zhang, a former chairman of Microsoft China.

WPP fell 1pc, or 6.8p, to 658.6p.