LONDON, March 13 — European stock markets rebounded slightly in early trading today, failing to overturn the previous day’s plunge fuelled by heightened fears of a global recession because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Shortly after the open, London was up 2.3 per cent, Frankfurt won 1.0 per cent, Paris gained 1.4 per cent and Milan rallied 3.1 per cent.  

Yesterday, the Paris CAC 40 dived more than 12 per cent to record its biggest one-day loss since the index was created at the end of 1987.

London’s FTSE 100 and the Frankfurt DAX 30 indices meanwhile had their biggest one-day drops since the late 1980s, with losses of around 10-12 per cent Thursday.

Europe’s leading stock markets have on average shed about one fifth of their values in just one week. — AFP