Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 1.5% as of 11:35 GMT, and hit the highest since September 2 at 374.25 points, after it closed lower by 0.2% on Friday, posting the first loss in 6 days on profit-taking. Stoxx Europe gained 6.75% during the past week, posting its first weekly gain in a month, thanks to the positive market sentiment on hopes about Biden’s victory in the US presidential election. The pan European index opened higher today, and hit a 2-month high, with most of the major European markets and sectors seeing green.
Travel and leisure sector saw the largest gains in Europe today, rising 3% after Biden won the US presidential election. Democratic candidate Joe Biden won the US presidential election on Saturday, after exceeding 270 electoral college votes, after he officially won in Pennsylvania according to the state laws, with 20 electoral college votes. Biden also won Nevada, which has 6 electoral college votes, bringing his total votes to 290 votes, to formally become the 46th president of the US. Biden’s win is expected to help in passing a huge fiscal stimulus in the US to support the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, and to adopt a more-free approach in global trade. S&P 500 futures rose 4.0%, hitting a new record high ahead of Wall Street’s opening, after the index closed lower by 0.1%.
Back to Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 1.6%, France’s CAC 40 rose 1.5%, Germany’s DAX added 1.7%, and the UK’s FTSE 100 rose 1.2%.