YoYo FTSE on China Virus and Strong Pound

Published / Last Updated on 24/01/2020

Worries over the spread of a new flu-like virus from China,  saw the FTSE 100 fall for a 4th time in a row on Thursday.

Major oil stocks and miners were hit as the City centre of Wuhan was on lockdown to prevent a global pandemic.  The new coronavirus has infected nearly 600 people and killed 17 so far.  An index of miners hit its lowest in 2 weeks and the biggest hit was to Shell and BP.

InterContinental Hotels fell by 2.4% after it announced customers could change of cancel bookings up to the 3rd February for free for stays across China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

PayPoint fell 8% after announcing its annual profit would grow at a more modest rate than previously expected.

ASOS the online fashion retailer rose 10% after beating sales growth expectations over the Christmas trading period.

In addition, a stronger pound based upon better economic figures for December than was expected in the UK also helped to pull FTSE 100 down.

BUT

Today (Friday 24 Jan 2020), the World Health Organisation termed the Corona virus, a Chinese emergency but not a global epidemic to calm market nerves with FTSE 100 bouncing back up some 1.5%.

Comment

So you now now what will happen if it does become a global issue.

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