European stocks slump, Asian stocks surge due to boost in vaccine hope

Gulf Today Report

On Tuesday, European stocks fell from eight-month highs as more countries impose restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index slipped 0.1% by 08:08 GMT. However, the announcement from Moderna of a 94.5% effective COVID-19 vaccine on Monday helped it in closing at its highest level

since Feb. 27. 

The road to economic recovery still looks long, as Sweden announces restricting the size of public gatherings and British medical adviser suggest reinforcing the three-tier system of restrictions. 

The bank sector fell after more the 3% increase, the oil and gas also slumped. 

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Asian Stocks

Asian stocks jumped on Tuesday following US company Moderna Inc announcing its coronavirus vaccine. 

Gains were led by benchmarks in Singapore and Indonesia which both rose around 1%, while Hong Kong rose 0.1% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.23%.

Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.24% after hitting a 29-year high the day before, but Chinese blue chips dropped as recent bond defaults hit sentiment.

Investors sentiment was boosted after Moderna Inc said its vaccine is 94.5% effective. 

Herald van der Linde, HSBC’s head of equity strategy for the Asia Pacific said, "the market is assuming that we can see the end of the tunnel, that in 2022 a large part of the world's population will start to receive access to vaccines."