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The pan-European STOXX 600 (STOXX) fell 0.5% by 0718 GMT after recording its first weekly fall in four on Friday.
Travel & leisure (SXTP) slumped 3.2%, with UK-based airlines and tour operators such as TUI AG (DE:TUIGn) (L:TUIT), Easyjet Plc (L:EZL), British Airways-owner IAG SA (L:ICAG) falling between 8% and 13.5%.
Europe’s biggest holiday company TUI said on Sunday it had decided to cancel all holidays to mainland Spain up to and including Sunday Aug. 9.
Spanish stocks (IBEX) fell 1.2%, while the Irish stocks benchmark (ISEQ) dropped 1.4% after airline Ryanair (I:RYA) said it was impossible to say whether it might turn an annual profit due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Germany’s DAX (GDAXI) was among the few gainers, helped by a 2.9% gain for software group SAP SE (DE:SAPG) after it announced plans to spin off and float Qualtrics, the U.S. specialist in measuring online customer sentiment.
