Markets Rally on Joe Biden Victory & Vaccine

Following Joe Biden’s victory in the US election, the FTSE 100 started early morning trading with a long overdue rise.

In the first half an hour of trading the London’s blue-chip index gained 1.62% and sat at 1.37% up at 5,990.86 by 10.10am.  The midcap FTSE 250 also rose 1.32% to 18,153.82.

Biden’s victory helped equities extend last week’s gains as global stocks rise to near record highs.  MSCI’s All-Country World Index rose 0.5% stronger than the intra-day high set on 3^rd September.

FTSE 100 stocks in London were trading in the green, apart from Avast and BT being in the red.  The main beneficiaries being airl;ines, travel and builders

Blue-chip householder Taylor Wimpey rose 12% after announcing it was on track to deliver annual results above market expectations.  After Taylor Wimpey’s announcement, Persimmon rose 4.77% and Baratt house builders to 3.58%.

Mining stocks also advanced 2.6% on stronger metal prices in addition to the wider homebuilders sub-index rising 2.3%.

Comment

Markets did not stop there with late news coming in today of successful vaccine trials for the Pfizer/BioNTec vaccine that produced 90% antibody immunity in third stage testing of over 45,000 people.

The French CAC finally closed up 17% from where it was just 10 days ago, Germany’s DAX up 13%, in the UK the FTSE 100 closed up 12%, the Dow Jones in the US up 10% and across the Far East markets were up around 7-8%.  Overall, for the indices that we track, markets are up nearly 11% on average in the last 10 days.