Airlines and Travel Companies Get Lift From News of 90 Percent Effective Vaccine

Shares in banks and in the travel and leisure industries surged 10% or more on Monday after Pfizer announced that its experimental COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective, prompting a major rally in bourses across the world.

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.

Europe’s banking index 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 , Bank of America and Goldman Sachs were all up between 4% and 8% in pre-market trading.

“Let’s just hope the vaccine deniers won’t get in the way, but 2021 just got a lot brighter,” said Neil Wilson, an analyst at Markets.com in London.

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, a change that could help fuel a recover in travel.

U.S. airlines, United and American jumped more than 20% in premarket trading.

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 the highest since March. Futures tracking the S&P 500 jumped 4% to record highs, while Nasdaq futures turned negative.

Nasdaq 100 is home to the world’s biggest technology stocks, such as Netflix , Amazon , Apple and most of the companies that benefited from consumers sheltering in place across the world.

A similar trend was observed in Germany with shares in Hellofresh , a clear winner from the lockdowns, among the few stocks losing ground with a 6.4% retreat.

(Reporting by Julien Ponthus, editing by Huw Jones)

This article was written by Julien Ponthus from Reuters and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to [email protected].