Europe close: Stocks retreat as coronavirus cases keep growing
Stocks fell sharply on Thursday as the death toll and number of confirmed coronavirus cases in China continued to rise overnight, amid reports of multinationals in the country moving to curtail their activity for the time being.
"Investors are acutely aware that this tragic situation has much further to run, and this leaves equities vulnerable to further falls," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG.
Starbucks and Toyota were among the companies that were said to be shuttering stores or production temporarily in China as the number of related fatalities hit 170 and that of confirmed cases reached 7,700.
That came alongside a decision by the Russian Federation to close its land border with the People's Republic of China.
By the end of trading, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 1.01% to 415.16, alongside a fall of 1.41% to 13,157.12 for the German Dax while the Cac-40 had retreated 1.41% to 5,871.77.
Crude oil futures were also falling sharply, as traders moved to price-in the near-term impact on economic growth in China and further afield.
Front month Brent crude oil futures dropped 3.23% to $57.94 a barrel on the ICE, while gold futures climbed 0.82% to $1,589.0/oz..
A panel of scientists from the World Health Organisation was set to meet on Thursday to decide whether to declare the coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency.
Surgical instruments maker Getinge AB was the second worst performer on the Stoxx 600, coming off its five-year highs in the wake of its latest full-year numbers.
Wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa was also on the back foot after posting a first quarter loss of €174.0m and lowering its 2020 guidance.
Going the other way was Volvo after the truck maker posted a 44.0% jump in 2019 net profits to €3.5bn and announced both a bigger regular dividend payout of 5.5 crowns per share and an increase in its extraordinary dividend from 5.0 crowns to 7.5.
Another Swedish name, Hennes&Mauritz, topped the leaderboard following the appointment of Helena Helmersson as its new chief executive officer and on the back of the fashion retailer's first increase in annual profits since 2015.
Shares of Deutsche Bank meanwhile rose to stand just below their 52-week highs as investors rewarded a strong showing at both its fixed income trading and asset management arms, although the lender's fourth quarter net loss hit €1.52bn (consensus: €1.04bn).
In other economic news, lawmakers in Berlin approved a five-year scheme of rent controls which was expected to come into effect in February, although opposition parties vowed to block it in the courts.
On a more positive note, the European Commission's economic sentiment index jumped from a reading of 101.3 for December to 103.8 in January (consensus: 102.8).
Elsewhere, the rate of unemployment in Germany for January was steady at 5.0%, as expected, although jobless claims fell by 2,000 (consensus: +5,000).
And at the euro area level, Eurostat reported a drop in unemployment from 7.5% for November to 7.4% in December (consensus: 7.5%).