Contagion is 'spreading' from banking to real economy

‘Indiscriminate selling’

Credit Suisse’s recent troubles have impacted several European banks, many of which were forced to stop trading last week, but the issues rippled through non-financials as well, with many seemingly unrelated stocks deep in the red.

In the week to 20 March, several FTSE 100 companies reported significant drops, according to data from Morningstar. While it was expected financial companies would suffer from the collapse of SVB and Credit Suisse's near miss, some of the most affected were non-financials. Shell was down 13%, closely followed by BP, which lost 12.6% over the week. Other non-financials included Burberry and Rolls Royce, which fell 6.9% and 6.5%, respectively. Industry commentators told Investment Week this "indiscriminate selling" was due to contagion quickly spreading from the banking sector to the re...