European stocks close higher on vaccine hopes; URW up 21%

• European tech stocks dropped 1.9% while banks surged another 4.4% as signs of a rotation from growth to value emerged.
• Pfizer and BioNTech said Monday that their coronavirus vaccine was more than 90% effective in preventing infection.

LONDON — European stocks closed higher Tuesday, extending gains from the previous session on hopes an effective coronavirus vaccine has been found.

European markets

The pan-European Stoxx 600 nudged higher to close up around 0.1% provisionally. Tech stocks dropped 1.9% while banks surged 4.4% as signs of a rotation from growth to value emerged.

The upward momentum follows a rally in global stock markets on Monday, after U.S pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German biotech firm BioNTech said their coronavirus vaccine was more than 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 among those without evidence of prior infection.

The news prompted global markets — that had already been trading higher Monday as investors reacted to Joe Biden's defeat of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race, according to NBC projections — to skyrocket.

On Wall Street, stocks struggled to maintain the positive momentum however, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes falling 1.2% and 0.3% respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.5%.

Adidas on Tuesday offered a cautious outlook for sales and operating profit in the fourth quarter amid a resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic across Europe. However, the German sportswear brand said it expects growth in Chinese sales and reported third-quarter earnings slightly above expectations. Adidas shares traded nearly 6% lower by early afternoon.

In terms of individual share price action, mall operator URW saw its shares bounce more than 21% after shareholders rejected a planned rights issue, while rival Klepierre added 18%.

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