It’s a shock.
While the CAC 40 was close to its all-time highs, it won this morning by almost 4%!
Investors thought they were done with the Covid-19 pandemic thanks to the vaccine campaigns, but the current fifth wave in Europe thwarts optimistic scenarios and poses a very real threat to the economy.
Already new restrictive measures
In France, the government has announced a new campaign for the 3rd vaccine dose, a strengthening of the wearing of masks in indoor places, but for the moment excludes more coercive measures.
See also
The corner of the chartist: the CAC 40 has started to consolidate calmly
An untenable position obviously thinks investors, who fear another shutdown of the economy.
In Austria, a new global containment has also been decreed since November 22, and the Netherlands are preparing to announce this Friday a strengthening of health restrictions to fight against the outbreak of cases in the country.
But the trigger for this stock market rout seems to be the announcement of the emergence of a new variant that is particularly contagious in South Africa.
Called B.1.1.529, it has a potential for very rapid spread, according to scientists, who are not sure at this stage whether current vaccines are effective against it.
As an immediate consequence, London announced that it would ban entry to the United Kingdom of all travelers from six countries in southern Africa.
Germany has done the same for South Africa, while Italy has extended the measure to seven countries in southern Africa, and the European Commission has proposed to suspend flights from that part of the country. world.
Aeronautics and leisure on the front line
Unsurprisingly, it is the values linked to travel and leisure that are most affected by this new situation.
Aeronautics is at the forefront: Airbus recorded the strongest decline
(-10.7%), followed by Safran (-10.1%), when Air France lost 7.7%.
The catering sector was not spared, with declines of 8.1% for Elior and 5.8% for Sodexo, as was the hotel industry, like Accor which fell by 5.9 %.
Only a few values related to health and logically sensitive to the fight against Covid-19 survive: Eurofins Scientific (+ 6.7%), Biomérieux (+ 5.1%) or even Sartorius Stedim (+ 4.8%).
