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| - Stocks struggled Friday after the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency over China's deadly virus, fuelling analyst worries for world economic growth. Only hours before Britain was due to leave the European Union, the London stock market underperformed its eurozone peers, as a stronger pound hurt exporters. Asian equity markets had earlier already been gripped by virus worries in a volatile end to the week, and Wall Street also fell at the opening. The novel coronavirus epidemic, which originated in the central Chinese city Wuhan, has so far killed 213 people. "Unless a cure is found, this could push a fragile world economic recovery into reverse," warned Douglas McWilliams, deputy chairman at British research group the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). Oxford Economics analysts said that the virus outbreak would have a large short-term impact on Chinese economic growth and possibly curb global GDP growth by 0.2 percentage points this year. "It's increasingly apparent the disease is becoming an economic as well as a public health concern," they said. The WHO invoked a global health emergency on coronavirus -- but stopped short of recommending trade and travel restrictions that could have had a bruising effect on China, a key global growth engine. Foreign airlines have begun cancelling or curtailing flights to and from China, and a number of governments are recommending citizens do not visit the country. Investors initially applauded the WHO's move, plunging back into markets that have lost altitude over recent days as the 2019-nCoV crisis has worsened. "Coronavirus fears continue to remain a dominant driver of market sentiment, with the continued proliferation of the virus providing a huge cause for concern," noted IG analyst Joshua Mahony. "Growth fears remain relevant as the virus continues to spread," he also warned. Separately, the EU's official statistics agency announced Friday that the 19-member single currency area had already suffered a sharp slowdown after a turbulent year of Brexit uncertainty and trade spats with US President Donald Trump. The eurozone economy grew 1.2 percent over the year, down from 1.8 percent in 2018 and well off the 2.7 percent seen in 2017. London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.9 percent at 7,317.58 points Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 0.6 percent at 13,073.19 Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.6 percent at 5,834.15 EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.7 percent at 3,663.56 New York - DOW: DOWN 0.7 percent at 28,655.89 Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 0.5 percent at 26,312.63 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.0 percent at 23,205.18 (close) Shanghai - Composite: Closed for a public holiday Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3149 from $1.3093 at 2200 GMT Euro/pound: DOWN at 84.08 from 84.26 pence Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1057 from $1.1032 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 108.83 from 108.96 Brent Crude: DOWN 0.9 percent at $56.81 per barrel West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.5 percent at $51.87 burs/jh/wai
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