Stock markets in Europe have fallen after the Barcelona attack, with shares in airline, hotel and travel companies among the hardest hit.
IAG, the parent company of British Airways and the Spanish carrier Iberia, fell 2% on Friday. Ryanair and easyJet posted more modest losses, while Air France-KLM ended the day 1.6% down. InterContinental Hotels Group lost 1.6%, and more broadly, the European travel and leisure index fell 1.5%.
Neil Wilson, analyst at the stock market betting firm ETX Capital, said: “As we’ve seen over the last couple of years in Europe, these kinds of atrocities affect tourism and will hit airline earnings.”
IAG and easyJet have ascribed recent dents in profits to uncertainty after terrorist attacks last year, with leisure bookings frequently dropping across many destinations in the immediate aftermath.
There has been an increase in bookings to European holiday destinations after terrorist attacks in Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt, with Spain among the biggest beneficiaries.
David Madden, analyst at the spreadbetting firm CMC Markets UK, said the attack had shaken tourist-related stocks: “When events like this happen, traders wonder will there be a negative impact on tourism, and companies in the travel and leisure sector feel the pressure,” he said.
The London FTSE 100 was down 0.9% at 7,323.98 points at the close of trading on Friday. Madrid was down 0.5% and there were also falls in Frankfurt and Paris.
