European markets continue to climb

Stock markets across Europe are continuing to rise on the back of Monday’s vaccine hopes.

London’s FTSE has gained over 7% this week and this afternoon was up 62 points at 6358.

Contributing to this rise was IAG shares (LON: IAG), which were up 7% at 147,05.

Other risers on Wednesday included Kingfisher and Ocado, which rose 5% and 3.45% respectively.

European markets are continuing to make gains, with the DAX up 58 points or 0.45% at 13,221, the CAC up 28 points or 0.6% at 5448, and Italy’s FTSE MIB up 181 points or 0.8% at 21,033.

“This week’s momentous news of a potentially successful vaccine for COVID-19 has triggered one of the biggest rotations in asset markets in recent memory,” said Geoff Yu, senior market strategist at BNY Mellon.

“Unsurprisingly, the eurozone equities market has been a major beneficiary as its value heavy components finally found favor,” he added.

Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note to clients today that they expect shares to continue their recovery over the next year.

“Our economists expect growth to show a marked acceleration from the end of 1Q as lockdowns ease and populations start to be vaccinated; European and global growth next year should be close to 6%,” said analysts from Goldman Sachs.

“The recent positive news on vaccine efficacy from Pfizer supports their view.”

“We forecast S&P 500 will climb by 16% to 4300 at year-end 2021 and gain 7% to reach 4600 by the end of 2022. The market is actually less dependent on the performance of a few mega-cap stocks than many investors perceive.”

On Wall Street, tech stocks are rising. Microsoft is up 2.6% and Salesforce.com is up 3.5%.

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Safiya Bashir
Safiya focuses on business and political stories for UK Investor Magazine. Her interests include international development, travel and politics.