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FTSE 100 suffers dip in airline shares following Spanish attacks

British share index the FTSE 100 has been hit by falls in airline and financial stocks following terror attacks in Spain.

The FTSE 100 index was down 1% at 7,320.66 points by 9.08am this morning, extending yesterday’s losses after three days of gains.

A white van hit crowds in Las Ramblas in Barcelona yesterday, leaving 13 people dead in an attack thought to have been carried out by Islamic militants. More than 100 people were injured.

Shares in International Consolidated Airlines Group, which operates British Airways, and easyJet were both down more than 2% as the broader European travel & leisure sector dropped 1.4%.

“The entire airline and leisure industry is down today purely from the attacks,” John Moore, trader at Berkeley Capital, told Reuters.

“People in the forthcoming months, we believe, will be less likely to take trips abroad,” he said, but added that he expected the airline stocks to recover.

But the FTSE 100 is still set to end the week with a small gain.

Randgold Resources was up 1.7% and the price of gold rose for the third day straight.

Financials knocked nearly 15 points off the index, with HSBC, Barclays and Lloyds all taking hits. But HSBC analysts were confident of a recovery.

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