Fear stalks the markets after the Omicron tumble | Business

When Paul Leech turns on his trading screens on Monday morning, he will be scrutinising early price movements with more intensity than usual. The co-head of global equities at Barclays had spent Friday fielding calls from clients worrying about the implications of the new Covid variant, Omicron, with the screens around him flashing red as share prices plunged.

On Friday, the FTSE 100 endured its biggest fall in 18 months — 266 points, or 3.6 per cent, to 7,044. Global stock markets tumbled, and oil prices dropped by 10 per cent. In an illustration of the anxiety gripping the market, the Vix, the so-called fear index that measures volatility, surged by the most in ten months.

While there had been no panic on Friday, when