THE FTSE 100 has leapt today to its highest point since June after news a second coronavirus vaccine has been found to be 94% effective.
Shares leapt by 1.8% to 6,430.27 within minutes of the announcement, up from 6362.71 at around 10:45am.
The FTSE 100 has leapt after news a second Covid-19 vaccine is more than 90% effectiveIt’s the best performing day since June 23 when it soared to 6472.59.
Trials on more than 30,000 people found that only five given the jab by US maker Moderna developed the virus – none with severe symptoms.
It’s the second indication in a week that a successful vaccine against Covid-19 is close to being developed.
The markets hope that a vaccine will help the economy return to something close to normal in the short to medium term.
The footsie index tracks the performance of the UK’s 100 biggest companies.
British Airways owner, IAG, which has been hit hard by the pandemic, shot up by 15%, while engine owner Rolls Royce rose by 10.5%.
Companies that have thrived throughout the coronavirus lockdown have tumbled following the news.
Just Eat Takeaway.com fell by 2.07%, while Reckitt Benckiser, which makes Dettol, fell 2.72%.
Meanwhile AstraZeneca, a rival to Pfizer and Moderna in the race for a vaccine, stayed the same.
The UK has already agreed deals for six different vaccine candidates and has access to 350 million doses to date, but none are from Moderna.
But the success rate of another vaccine is a positive indicator that more are yet to come, including the University of Oxford jab.
Last Monday, the markets jumped 5.5% following the news from Pfizer that their Covid-19 vaccine trial worked better than expected.
The surged added £82billion to shares in the market’s best day since June, although it dipped slightly to 6,186.29 but still finished up by 4.67%.
The government has already secured 10million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which could be rolled out by Christmas if given the green light from regulators.
On March 12, 2020, the markets crashed 10.9% in a day to finish at 5,237.00 points, in one of the worst days since Blank Monday in 1987.
Since then, the pandemic has continued to have an impact – in September the FTSE 100 crashed by 3.5% over fears the UK would go into a second lockdown.
More to follow…
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