Italian Stocks Set for Bear Market as Oil Woe Adds to Virus Fear

(Bloomberg) --

Italian stocks dropped on Monday, poised to enter a bear market after Italy announced drastic travel ban measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus and as oil markets crashed after the disintegration of the OPEC+ alliance sparked an all-out price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

The benchmark FTSE MIB Index was down 2% as of 09:15 a.m. in Milan, with only a handful of stocks trading. Monday’s losses take its plunge since a high reached on Feb. 19 to 20%. Concerns about the economic impact of the coronavirus have sent shares tumbling in recent weeks.

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