Travel stocks weigh on Europe after UK quarantine move on Spain

(Reuters) – 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 <.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 , 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 <.ibex> fell 1.2%, while the Irish stocks benchmark <.iseq> 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 <.gdaxi> 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.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)