Carnival shares fall as ship investigated for coronavirus

Carnival shares fell after one of the cruise operator's ships was put in lockdown while being investigated for potential cases of coronavirus.

Reports said two Chinese passengers with coronavirus symptoms were onboard a Carnival ship docked at the Italian port of Civitavecchia.

The authorities kept 6,000 passengers and crew on the Costa Smeralda vessel while medial checks were carried out on the passengers. The ship is operated by Carnival's Costa Crociere division.

The couple arrived in Italy on 25 January and boarded the ship Costa Smeralda in the port of Savona that day, Reuters reported. They then came down with a fever and began suffering breathing difficulties.

Carnival shares fell 7% to 3,111p at 12:36 GMT. The FTSE 100 company had already cancelled cruises from China.

Coronavirus has killed 170 people in China and has spread to infect people in several other countries including Thailand, France and the US, with the number of confirmed cases already standing at 7,700. The World Health Organization warned that the world needed to be on alert about the disease before meeting on Thursday to decide whether to declare a global health emergency.