Rising Covid cases in Europe and the US dampened hopes of a recovery, leaving investors wary of shares and hitting travel stocks.
DUBLIN
Airline Ryanair Holdings fell 6.54 per cent to €14.655 on fears that rising virus rates would prompt the UK to impose quarantines on passengers arriving from some European countries and general concerns about travel. Hotel group Dalata was off 3.85 per cent at €3.50.
Dealers in Dublin noted “there was a lot of red on the screen” following a day when most leading names stocks were down.
CRH retreated 4.39 per cent to €39.84 as construction-related stocks gave up some of the gains made in recent days. Insulation and building materials group Kingspan was down 1.37 per cent at €83.70.
Paddy Power and Betfair owner Flutter Entertainment slid 2.75 per cent to €137.70 despite announcing a debt refinancing. Dealers said betting stocks were generally weak on Monday.
Food names also performed poorly. Glanbia fell 2.73 per cent to €14.26. Kerry Group was down 1.44 per cent at €120.20.
LONDON
Aer Lingus and British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines' Group (IAG) slid 5.23 per cent to 159p sterling as fears grew once again that further UK travel curbs could hit its industry.
Ryanair rival Easyjet tumbled 6.6 per cent to 770p on the same concerns. The stock was down more than 7 per cent at one point during Monday's trade.
Construction-related stocks also endured a tough time. Irish builders' supplier and DIY chain owner Grafton Group retreated 4.3 per cent to 1,138p. The company has a large British business and has its sole listing in London.
House builder Taylow Wimpey fell 3.09 per cent to 150.65p while competitor Persimmon was off 1.86 per cent at 2,897.
Spire Healthcare plunged after failing to secure sufficient shareholder support for a £1 billion takeover bid from rival Ramsay Health Care. Shares in the firm tumbled by more than 7.2 per cent to 218p.
Ocado dropped to its lowest in more than a year, after it was forced to axe thousands of orders following a warehouse fire caused by three of its robots crashing. Shares in the online retail and technology firm finished 1.88 per cent lower at 1,771p. Marks & Spencer, which runs an online retail joint venture with Ocado, also dropped, by 4.38 per cent to 132.3p, as traders feared a knock-on effect from the fire.
Entain, owner of bookies Ladbrokes and Coral was down 2.97 per cent at 1,767p. In the same industry, Playtech was 3.84 per cent off at 360.8p.
EUROPE
Air France KLM slipped 2.89 per cent to €3.79 as investors swerved airlines. German group Lufthansa was down 2.94 per cent at €9.44.
Europe's Stoxx 600 slid over 2 per cent in its worst session in seven months. Germany's Dax dropped 2.6 per cent, while Italy's MIB plunged 3.3 per cent, its steepest one-day drop since October.
Oil majors including Royal Dutch Shell and French giant Total fell up to 4.7 per cent. French media company Vivendi hit a four-month low, down 1.5 per cent, after billionaire investor Bill Ackman decided to buy up to 10 per cent of Vivendi's Universal Music Group through his main hedge fund, rather than a special purpose acquisition company.
US
The Dow sank more than 2 per cent on Monday as investors sold off economically sensitive shares and travel stocks.
This week's focus shifts to tech earnings with companies including IBM, Netflix, Texas Instruments and Intel set to report this week.
US-listed shares of Alibaba Holding, Baidu and taxi app Didi Global declined 2.3-7.3 per cent on renewed fears of anti-monopoly action.
Zoom Video Communications slipped 4.2 per cent after the teleconferencing services provider announced a $14.7 billion all-stock deal to buy cloud-based call centre operator Five9 , whose shares jumped 5 per cent.
