Shares in Carnival plc, the UK based holding company in the Carnival Corporation & plc group fell sharply on Friday morning after Credit Suisse reportedly had downgraded the company to ”neutral” from “outperform” and lowered target price.

In early afternoon London time, Carnival plc traded 4.3% lower at 4,888p (prices on the London market are given in pence, hence this translates to £48.88) after hitting a session’s low at 4,824 and a high at 4,997. The FTSE 100 index of leading shares had fallen 1.17% at the same time.

Credit Suisse trimmed the target price for the shares to 5,300p from 5,910p as it knocked the stock off its previous 'outperform' rating, sees threats to demand in the 2018 financial year in each of the top three cruise markets, Digitaloook.com business news website reported .

“In the Caribbean, which represents 39% of global passengers, Hurricane Irma has laid waste to potentially 24% of the region by passenger volume and could be facing a repeat of 2005 when earnings per share were downgraded 10%,” the report said.

“For the Mediterranean, representing 14% of passengers, the Swiss bank pointed to the recent terror attack in Barcelona, which is the number-one cruise port in a region where in the East there has been a 60% decline in volumes seen since 2011 due to issues in Athens and Turkey,” Digitallook continued..

“China, which represents 12% of passengers, the Korea travel ban is still in place and the industry is planning to trim capacity by 5% in 2018,” the report said, adding that in the face of these potential issues, Carnival's 2017-22 estimated capacity growth is 6.1%, the absolute level of capacity growth in 2018-2021 is double that of the past five years.