Europe markets advance at open

November 11, 2020: Europe's major stock markets opened higher Wednesday, riding positive sentiment from the news of a highly successful coronavirus vaccine trial and Joe Biden's US election victory.

In initial deals, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of big blue-chip companies gained 0.5 percent to 6,326.43 points after a solid raft of gains in Asia.

In the eurozone, Frankfurt's DAX 30 added 0.3 percent to 13,206.64 points and the Paris CAC 40 rose 0.6 percent to 5,452.37.

"Investors are picking up the momentum where they left off yesterday," said AvaTrade analyst Naeem Aslam.

"There is still a lot of hope about the potential vaccine by Pfizer and sector rotation continues."

Equities were already in the ascendant at the end of last week as it appeared the former vice president was on course to wrest control of the White House from Donald Trump and provide more certainty to world affairs.

But US pharma giant Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech provided rocket fuel Monday when they said their candidate for a Covid-19 vaccine had been 90 percent effective, lifting hope for a move back towards normality.

AFP/APP