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* Travel and leisure, basic resources stocks worst hit
* WPP leads losses on STOXX 600 after bleak forecast
* Standard Chartered, AB InBev latest victims of virus
damage
* Hikma Pharma tops STOXX 600 on annual earnings beat
(Adds details, updates to close)
By Ambar Warrick and Thyagaraju Adinarayan
Feb 27 (Reuters) - European stocks marked their weakest
close in more than four months on Thursday, sinking into
correction territory as a jump in coronavirus cases outside
China deepened fears of an economically damaging pandemic.
Investors typically consider a correction in a security or
index to be a drop of 10% or more from its recent peak.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index, which retreated
3.8% for the day, has fallen more than 10% from a record high
hit on Feb. 19.
While strong earnings had caused investors to pause selling
on Wednesday, a spike in infections outside China, particularly
in Italy, saw markets slip back into red.
"From the unshakeable optimism seen at the beginning of the
year, investors have done a complete U-turn switching from
excessive optimism to outright pessimism in less than a week,"
Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said.
Thursday's sell-off saw more than 97% of the pan-European
STOXX 600 index's constituents trading red, with basic
resources stocks among the worst performers as commodity
prices plunged amid fears of sustained disruptions in the global
supply chain.
"The sell-off in the base metals complex over the last few
days largely reflects the heightened risk-off sentiment or
'fear-factor' across broader riskier assets," Wenyu Yao, senior
commodities strategist at ING wrote in a note.
London-listed miner Evraz Plc was the worst
performing stock in the sector after it posted weak 2019
earnings.
Travel stocks also plummeted, with casino operator
Evolution Gaming Group leading declines. The sector
has shed nearly 15% this week, underperforming its peers by a
wide margin.
Standard Chartered fell 3.5% after the bank said a
key earnings target would take longer to meet as the epidemic
adds to headwinds in China and Hong Kong. The broader bank
sector was also pressured by a drop in bond yields.
The world's largest beer maker, Anheuser-Busch InBev
, plunged nearly 11% after it forecast muted growth in
2020, due in part to the outbreak.
Advertising major WPP tumbled 16%, marking its worst
day since August 1992, after saying it would target flat organic
growth and profit margins in 2020. The stock was the worst
performer on the STOXX 600.
Italian shares, which entered correction territory
on Wednesday, fell 2.7% as the country reported another 100
coronavirus cases nationwide, taking the total to more than 400.
In a sole bright spot, Hikma Pharmaceuticals rose
4.6%, topping the STOXX 600 after it beat expectations with its
annual earnings.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru and Danilo Masoni in
Milan
Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Giles Elgood and Frances Kerry)
