Europe open: Covid vaccine news fails to give shares a boost
By Frank Prenesti
Date: Wednesday 02 Dec 2020
(Sharecast News) - News that Britain had approved a Covid-19 vaccine failed to give European shares a shot in the arm on Wednesday, as investors fretted about the continuing lack of progress in Brexit talks.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.33% at the opening with Continental markets mixed. The UK FTSE 100 was peeping into positive territory while the German DAX and French CAC 40 were both lower.
US Dow Jones futures were down 120 points.
The UK government said it had approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, with the first immunisations rolling out from next week, although the response from investors was muted.
''There's a distinct lack of fizz from the Pfizer vaccine UK approval on the London market, with the FTSE 100 opening flat," said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter.
"The vaccine roll outs had already been largely factored in and helped the FTSE 100 gain by more than 12 per cent in November, the biggest climb for 11 years. The breather comes after the roaring session on Tuesday and after a record close for the S&P 500 in New York on hopes a massive stimulus deal will be agreed for the US economy."
"Eyes and ears are also turning to the Brexit talks, which still hang in the balance. Nervousness about the outcome of negotiations pushed sterling below 1.11 against the euro, and we should expect further volatility with concerns still high that the UK could end the transition year without a trade deal in place.''
In corporate news, shares in G4S jumped 7.5% after Canada's GardaWorld lifted its offer for the UK outsourcer to 235p a share, valuing it at £3.68bn.
Shares in lab instrument maker Tecan Group jumped after the company raised earnings forecasts.
Workspace provider IWG was under the cosh after saying it would raise £300m in a convertible bond issue to help pay for a string of planned acquisitions at attractive prices.
In equity markets, housebuilders were among the worst performers, having rallied on Tuesday on the back of upbeat data from mortgage lender Nationwide. Barratt, Taylor Wimpey, Berkeley and Persimmon were all weaker.
(Michele Maatouk also contributed to this report)
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