Costa Cruises has canceled most of the cruises in north east Asia -  from ports in China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea – scheduled for march, while shares in Carnival plc opened sharply lower on Monday morning.

The affected ships are Costa Venezia, Costa Serena, Costa Atlantica and Costa neoRomantica, the company said.

Meanwhile, shares in the Carnival group’s UK listed and domiciled holding company Carnival plc stared the week sharply lower, trading at £23.14 at 1030 local time, down 4.8% from the opening. It had hit a low of £23.00 earlier in the session. Costa Cruises is part of the Carnival Corporation & plc group.

The FTSE100 index of leading shares traded 1.13% higher at the same point in time.

On Friday in New York, cruise shares had staged a recovery in tandem with the wider market after sustaining sharp losses during the week.