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* STOXX 600 at highest since late-Feb
* Banking sector jumps to over 8-month high, BBVA leads
* Data shows surge in China retail sales in October
* Vodafone gains on strong earnings forecast
(Adds details on Moderna vaccine, updates prices)
By Shashank Nayar and Ambar Warrick
Nov 16 (Reuters) - European shares shot up to a
more-than-eight-month high on Monday, after Moderna Inc
became the second drugmaker in a week to report high efficacy
for an experimental coronavirus vaccine.
The pan-European STOXX 600 traded 1.5% higher by
1219 GMT after Moderna announced that its vaccine appeared to be
highly effective. Pfizer made a similar announcement on Nov. 9.
"The more companies that can develop a vaccine candidate
that can be shown to be effective, the more optimistic investors
will be about being able to see a way out of this pandemic and
for economic activity, sort of come back to some semblance of
normality," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC
Markets.
European banks were the best performing sector,
adding 4.7%. Spain's BBVA topped the sector after PNC
Financial Services Group said it would buy its U.S.
business for $11.6 billion in cash.
European Central Bank Vice President Luis de Guindos asked
Euro zone banks on Monday to keep using their capital buffers to
absorb losses without holding back credit to the real economy,
which, he said, needs time to rebound from a pandemic-induced
recession.
CMC's Hewson also noted an air of caution over a post-COVID
recovery, saying economic activity would not return to
pre-pandemic levels overnight.
Shares of Germany's BioNtech, which is developing
the other vaccine with Pfizer, fell more than 5% after
Moderna's report.
Data showing that China's factory output rose faster than
expected in October and that retail sales surged had helped
sentiment earlier in the day.
The benchmark STOXX 600 has gained nearly 40% from its March
lows, although it has underperformed its U.S. peers this year. A
spike in coronavirus cases across Europe has resulted in
renewed, economically disruptive lockdown measures.
But overall quarterly results for STOXX 600 companies have
been better than expected, with 68% of those that have reported
results so far beating earnings estimates, according to
Refinitiv data.
In company news, Vodafone Group gained 4.6% after it
said it was increasingly confident about its full-year
performance following a "resilient" first-half, despite
underlying momentum being obscured by the impact of COVID-19.
(Reporting by Shashank Nayar and Devik Jain in Bengaluru
Editing by Anil D'Silva, Shounak Dasgupta and Peter Graff)
