Source: GETTY IMAGES

Source: GETTY IMAGES

Financial markets are set for a turbulent opening come Monday following terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday night that left 129 dead and scores injured. The French stock exchange maintains it will be open for trading as usual on Monday according to a statement from stock and derivatives exchange, Euronext.”Our main priority will be the safety of our staff so there will therefore be added security in place in the city of Paris on Monday,” said a Euronext spokesman.

Investors may be forced to seek the more traditional safe-havens of investing in, such as the Japanese yen, the US dollar andgold. Meanwhile, market sentiment had been quite weak prior to the Paris attack, as UK’s FTSE 100 index closed at a six-week low. Across in the USA, Wall Street was in the throes of its worst week since August.In addition to the lackluster performance witnessed recently across the US and the UK, European nations were not left out of the meltdown, with the Germany’s Dax, and the French Cac-40 plus the major Asian indexes all having closed down Friday.Many financial analysts have predicted that the markets would indeed be rattled by the Paris attacks.

Analysts have projected that market stocks, especially the ones connected to France’s large tourism sector, are more at risk of experiencing a huge fall.The French tourism industry accounts for roughly 7.5% of the EU country’s GDP.”The Paris terrorist attacks in addition to the big scale of this attack may endanger a negative impact to the tourism and travel sector,” observed Robert T Lutts, the President and CIO [Chief Investment Officer] at Cabot Wealth Management group. Speaking to Reuters, Lutts added, “Quite possibly, this may cause investors to take adorn a more cautious stance when trading on the higher risk sectors of the markets.”

Talking to the Reuters news agency, Alexandre Baradez, a financial analyst with IG France, said that stocks “Which were angled at consumer goods or tourism, and most notably in the luxury industry with the upcoming Christmas season, could be majorly affected.” A financial market and fiscal analyst with SMBC Nikko Securities, Hidenori Suezawa, went on to add that, “Given the fact that France is home to a large tourism industry, there could be damage to the economy should the terror attacks lead to a fall in numbers for the visitors coming to France, or even affecting tourism in general after the crash of a Russian plane.”

Euro 2016 Tournament

The picture isn’t getting any rosier with the organizers of the Euro 2016 football tournament which traditionally hosts a big influx of tourists from all across Europe, saying the event should not have to be cancelled. One of the tournament’s organizers, Jacques Lambert, talked to French radio station, RTL; “We will take all the necessary decisions concerning the Euro 2016 tournament so it takes place in the best safety conditions possible”. Lambert went on to add, “Because security in stadiums has always worked well, the risk will be more in the streets, as well as in spontaneous gatherings.”

It’s to be noted that the Spanish and the UK markets also dropped by 2.2% and 1.4% respectively after the Madrid bombings of 2004, and London bombings in 2005.”The knee-jerk reaction when other terrorist attacks have occurred within the last decade have been to rush to safety,” said Guy LeBas, the chief fixed income strategist with Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, who went on to add, “and this has also included aggressive buying in the US Treasury markets”. Investors in the US as well as across Europe will be closely monitoring how the markets react in Australia and Asia when they open on Monday. The Chief economist at Australia’s AMP Capital in Sydney, Shane Oliver, observed that there could be short-term nervousness with the market, even though he thinks the economic impact will be somehow limited.”The markets will quickly recover, and they’ll go on to focus on other things,” he added.