CAC 40 Down On Virus Worries
(RTTNews) - French stocks succumbed to heavy selling pressure on Monday as much of Europe went into shutdown mode to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
Italy on Sunday announced 368 new deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll in the country to 1,809.
Germany introduced border controls with Austria, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland in a bid to stem the coronavirus outbreak.
The coronavirus outbreak in France is "very worrying" and "deteriorating very fast", the head of the country's health service said.
In Spain, the government said it is seeking ways to extend the state of emergency beyond the 15 days required by law.
The benchmark CAC 40 was down over 400 points, or 9.72 percent, at 3,717 in early trade after rallying 1.8 percent on Friday.
Air France-KLM shares slumped 17 percent. The Group, comprising Air France, KLM and Transavia, announced its plan to reduce capacity significantly over the next few days as demand and sales are very weak due to the Coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic.
LVMH gave up nearly 9 percent. The luxury goods giant said it would start making hand sanitizer for French hospitals for free.
