Global markets roared higher in a rally Monday led by companies hit hardest by the pandemic after Pfizer and BioNTech revealed a breakthrough in the race to find a vaccine for Covid-19.
Brent, the internationally traded crude oil grade surged near $43 a barrel bringing cheers to oil dependent economies like Nigeria hard hit by collapse in oil demand brought about by Covid-19.
The drugmakers’ announcement that a vaccine had been found to be more than 90 per cent effective in a late-stage trial ricocheted through asset markets that had already been rising on optimism over Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election.
Airlines, hotels and aeroplane makers — three industries ravaged by the collapse in travel — were among the biggest winners.
British Airways’ parent IAG soared 30 per cent in London, while Airbus rose 19 per cent in Paris and Ryanair gained 13 per cent in Dublin.
InterContinental Hotels jumped 14 per cent while Premier Inn owner Whitbread surged 18 per cent. Rolls-Royce, the UK jet engine maker, was up 46 per cent.
Shares in Boeing, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines all rallied by more than 10 per cent in pre-market trading on Wall Street. Groups seen as beneficiaries of the pandemic had the opposite reaction.
HelloFresh, the meal delivery service, fell 12 per cent in Frankfurt while London-listed Ocado, the UK group that delivers groceries and sells technology to do so to major supermarket chains such as Kroger of the US, fell by the same amount.
Zoom, the videoconferencing service, fell 13 per cent in New York pre-market trading.
“It’s the nature of how positive the data is that has got everyone excited,” said Randeep Somel, a fund manager at M&G Investments.
“It’s also the fact that they could have turned around said ‘a vaccine is not possible’, which now this data has seemingly done away.”
MSCI’s index of global stocks in developed and emerging markets, which had already risen to an all-time high on Monday, rose further after Pfizer’s announcement.
The index was recently up 1 per cent as Europe’s Stoxx 600 index jumped 4.1 per cent. Futures tracking America’s blue-chip S&P 500 index soared 4.2 per cent, adding to sharp gains last week.
