airline and travelrelated stocks were broadly lower in early asian trade weighed by investor concerns over the spread of the omicron covid19 variant which has prompted tighter border controls in some countries china southern airlines co hk1055 slipped 4 cathay pacific airways ltd hk293 fell 3 korean air lines co kr003490 was down 05 and singapore airlines ltd sgc6l declined 18 samsung ct corp kr028260 which operates south korea’s largest theme park everland was off 2 while singaporelisted airline servicing company sats ltd sgs58 fell13 luggage maker samsonite international sa hk1910 fell 30 hong konglisted casino shares were also down on concerns surrounding the virus as well as news that an arrest warrant has been issued for the head of macau’s largest junket group for crossborder gambling activities sands china ltd hk1928 was down 6 wynn macau ltd hk1128 declined 9 and galaxy entertainment group ltd hk27 slid 8 global markets tumbled friday after the world health organization called the newly identified omicron a “variant of concern” many market analysts have characterized the fall in asian equities as a kneejerk reaction to the uncertainty given that little is known about the infectiousness of the new variant vaccine partners biontech se bntx and pfizer inc pfe have said it will take at least two weeks to assess the efficacy of its vaccines against the new strain morgan stanley says the emergence of the new covid variant could have different effects across asia china hong kong and taiwan “have maintained a covidzero strategy which will limit the nearterm economic impact but will delay any reopening efforts and rebound in consumption growth” in countries that have attempted to open and live with the virus including japan south korea singapore and australia economies “are exposed to a risk of a setback in nearterm growth” it said the bank added that the effect on india and southeast asia could be greater given that “these economies have tended to tighten restrictions when cases rise sharply” it added that the risk to regional economic growth is skewed toward the first quarter of 2022 given that the starting point of cases in the current quarter is relatively low investment bank goldman sachs estimates that travel restrictions could deal a 20 hit to global economic growth in the fourth week of november–but added that the impact is marginal compared to the peak 20 hit recorded in midapril 2020