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By Julien Ponthus
LONDON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Shares of banks, oil and travel
companies soared on Monday after Pfizer said its experimental
COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective, prompting
investors to shift bets to beaten-down cyclical names from
stay-at-home winners.
Sectors which had been the most hit by lockdowns, travel
restrictions and social distancing introduced to curb the spread
of COVID-19 made spectacular moves as traders rushed to price
what could be a game changer for markets after months of being
roiled by the pandemic.
By the same token, stocks seen as safe havens since the
coronavirus started its worldwide deadly spread, sustained heavy
losses, such as conferencing platform Zoom Video which or
UK food delivery champion Ocado.
"It's a game-changer because the possibility of a vaccine
makes it possible to envisage reopening the economy in 2021 and
a strong and sustainable recovery", said Emmanuel Cau, head of
European equity strategy at Barclays.
"A lot of investors were waiting and positioned for this",
he added, noting that Joe Biden's victory in the U.S.
presidential election had also lifted a lot of the uncertainty
clouding markets recently.
Europe's banking index, plagued by low interest
rates and the fear of widespread defaults in the corporate
world, made its biggest one-day jump since the European
sovereign debt crisis in 2011, gaining 10.9%.
French banks Societe Generale and BNP Paribas
led the way, up 18% and 14.5% respectively.
On Wall Street, JP Morgan and Bank of America were
up over 10% in early trades.
European airlines, hard hit by travel restrictions induced
by the pandemic, rallied hard, with BA owner IAG,
rising close to 40%.
Earlier, Britain's transport minister Grant Shapps told an
online airport industry conference that Britain was making "good
progress" with a plan to allow COVID-19 tests to shorten a
14-day quarantine period for those returning from abroad.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index, which was already up after
Joe Biden's victory in the U.S. presidential election, jumped
4.5% to its highest since March.
Relief was also palpable in commercial real estate with the
prospect of malls welcoming hordes of consumers again. French
real estate group Klepierre and Unibail rose
36% and 22% respectively.
The S&P 500 jumped 4% to record highs at the open but the
Nasdaq, home to the world's biggest technology stocks,
such as Netflix, Amazon, Apple which
greatly benefited from consumers change in behaviour, made only
modest gains of 0.5%.
(Reporting by Julien Ponthus, additional reporting by
Thyagaraju Adinarayan; Editing by Toby Chopra)
