Omicron fears return as boss of vaccine maker Moderna spooks markets               

Moderna's chief executive Stéphane Bancel told the Financial Times: "All the scientists I've talked to ... are like: 'This is not going to be good'."

A pharmacist holding a vial of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine. Picture: Yui Mok/PA Wire

Covid fears came back to haunt investors as the boss of US vaccine maker Moderna spooked European stock markets about the efficacy of its vaccine against the Omicron variant. 

Global stock markets were also affected by the eurozone posting record-high inflation figures, which in turn put the spotlight on the ECB and its commitment to hold the line against hiking interest rates anytime soon.       

The Iseq in Dublin closed 0.5% lower, the Ftse-100 was down by 0.7%, and the Dax index of shares in Frankfurt fell by 1.1%. 

In Ireland, AIB and housebuilder Cairn Homes fell by over 2%. 

ICG, which owns Irish Ferries, was among the biggest fallers, down by almost 3.5%, and Dalata Hotel, Ireland's largest hotels operator with its Clayton and Maldron chains, ended 1.7% lower amid the fears over even tougher travel restrictions to come. Ryanair was little changed, however. 

The Government has from Friday mandated that all arrivals from overseas will require a negative test for Covid.     

Wholesale energy costs again provided one bright spot that the costs of household heating and lighting bills will be capped this winter.  The price of Brent crude oil sank by over $3 a barrel to $70.43 and wholesale gas in the Netherlands hub was also down today, by 1.5%, to €92 per megawatt hour.      

In London, IAG, the conglomerate that owns Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, and Vueling, closed the session 1% lower. 

"There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] is the same level," Moderna's chief executive, Stéphane Bancel, told the Financial Times in an interview.

"I think it's going to be a material drop. I just don't know how much, because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I've talked to ... are like: 'This is not going to be good'." 

Mr Bancel had earlier said on CNBC that there should be more clarity on the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines against the Omicron variant in about two weeks, but that it could take months to begin shipping a reworked vaccine designed for it. 

While Moderna shares fell 3.4% in the US, rival vaccine maker Pfizer gained 3.5%.

Shares in Pfizer's German partner BioNTech were, however, down almost 4%.        

"While the Moderna CEO may have whipped up fears over weak vaccine protection against the Omicron variant, he offered little new data to justify the sharp European losses this morning," said Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at IG, an online broker. 

While data remains thin on the ground given the relative infancy of this strain, markets are likely to remain highly volatile and unpredictable as they react to any news that could guide our expectations over how this will play out." 

In its assessment of the threat from Omicron, Capital Economics said because of low vaccination numbers in the regions, the Middle East and North African economies were "potentially among the most vulnerable to the fallout from the Omicron strain of Covid-19".