Travel stocks weigh on Europe after UK quarantine move on Spain

Travel & leisure slumped 3.2%, with UK-based airlines and tour operators such as TUI AG , Easyjet Plc, British Airways-owner IAG SA 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.

European shares fell on Monday as travel stocks slumped in early deals after Britain imposed a quarantine on travellers returning from Spain because of a surge of coronavirus cases.

The pan-European STOXX 600 fell 0.5% by 0718 GMT after recording its first weekly fall in four on Friday. Travel & leisure slumped 3.2%, with UK-based airlines and tour operators such as TUI AG , Easyjet Plc, British Airways-owner IAG SA 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 fell 1.2%, while the Irish stocks benchmark dropped 1.4% after airline Ryanair 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 was among the few gainers, helped by a 2.9% gain for software group SAP SE after it announced plans to spin off and float Qualtrics, the U.S. specialist in measuring online customer sentiment.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)