Europe open: Shares maintain highs on Covid vaccine rollout, Brexit deal hopes
European shares opened higher on Thursday, maintaining 10-month highs as sentiment was lifted by hopes of a US stimulus package, moves to speed up Covid-19 inoculations on the continent and potential progress on a Brexit deal.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was up 0.53%, with Germany’s DAX climbed 0.9% higher and the French CAC rising 0.47%.
Germany and France said they planned to roll out Pfizer-BioNtech’s Covid vaccine in the last week of December, after approval by the European Medicines Agency.
In London, investors were waiting for the outcome of a Bank of England meeting later in the day. The central bank was expected to keep its policy unchanged, with the outcome of Brexit trade talks heavily in focus.
“Markets in Europe have continued to push higher this morning as the landing zone for an EU/UK trade deal starts to come into view, with investors seemingly content to ignore continued surges in coronavirus cases in Germany, which continue to break new records,” said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
“Will everyone be happy with the eventual outcome? Probably not, but a failure now at this late stage would be absolutely criminal, begging the question as to whether either side would put political ideology ahead of their own economic interests.”
“Let’s not forget for all of French President Emmanuel Macron’s stubbornness over fishing, France would lose all access to UK waters in the event of no deal, an outcome he would probably have great difficulty selling as any kind of win. It would also sour relations over any kind of future discussion as we head into 2021.”
WPP shares jumped 2.8% as the world’s biggest advertising firm said it expects to return to its 2019 level of net sales by 2022.
On the downside, travel food outlet operator SSP Group was in the red after saying it expects an 80% fall in first quarter sales as the second wave of Covid-19 hit its UK and European markets with volatility continuing into the second three months of the financial year.
The owner of Upper Crust reported an annual loss of £425m compared with £197.2m profit as the pandemic battered that global travel industry. Revenue slumped 47% on a constant currency basis to £1.43bn.