European stocks fall again over virus fears

European shares dropped again on Thursday, with a deeper hit for travel stocks due to a sudden rise in coronavirus cases outside China. This news heightened fears on its impact on global growth.

Many blue-chip companies released profit warnings, with the Standard Chartered sliding 3.4% after saying that key earnings target would need more time due to the epidemic hitting its main markets, Hong Kong and China.

Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest beer maker globally, lost 5.6% due to a forecasting stunt growth in 2020 partly caused by the outbreak.

Governments raised measures on the control of the virus to prevent a global outbreak, as the confirmed cases rose to as much as the cases in China.

The pan-regional STOXX 600 dropped 2.2% by 0817 GMT, nearing to its worst week since January 2016.

A weakening Chinese economy and unstable oil prices caused disruption in global markets.

Travel & leisure stocks .SXTP slid 3.3% after airlines and hotel groups suffered low demands.

Reports of weak earnings also affected market appetite. Advertising major WPP slipped 13.6% after expressing an aim to target profit margin and flat organic growth in 2020. Shares in rival Publicis Groupe SA lost 3.3%.