Europe tumbles again as travel stocks knocked down

(Reuters) – European shares resumed their slide on Friday, with travel stocks bearing the brunt, on fears that the economic damage of the coronavirus outbreak will be much more severe than expected.

The pan-European STOXX 600 <.STOXX> fell 1.7% by 0815 GMT, erasing all the gains for the week.

The travel & leisure index <.SXTP> tumbled 2.7%, firmly in bear market territory – seen as a 20% drop from recent peak – as the outbreak wrecks havoc on travel demand.

European planemaker Airbus skidded 3.4% as it failed to win any new aircraft orders in February, another evidence of disruption across aviation industries due to the outbreak.

British cinema operator Cineworld slumped 5.8% as its annual results missed analysts’ expectations, but said it had not observed any significant impact of the outbreak on its movie theater admissions.

Miners <.SXPP>, automakers <.SXAP>, oil& gas companies <.SXEP> and banking <.SX7P> sectors were trading in bear market.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)