ABB warns about coronaravirus impact on sales and profit

ABB became the latest company to warn about the impact of the coronavirus on its profits, with the Swiss engineering group on Monday saying all of its businesses would suffer in the first quarter. "Although it is not yet possible to determine the exact impact of COVID-19 on ABB's first-quarter results, ABB expects revenues to decline in all its businesses relative to a year ago, while orders are somewhat less impacted," ABB said in a statement.

Profitability would also decline as the company struggled with lower volumes, it added.