European equities experienced another productive week, especially on travel stocks, after the drug company Pfizer received positive feedback for its antiviral COVID-19 pill.
Furthermore, the European joint-stock STOXX 600 ended the week vaguely, but it collected 1.7 per cent in weekly gains for the fifth week in the row of being green, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
In general, the European travel stocks increased by 1.4 per cent, especially after Pfizer Inc carried out the trial for the efficiency of the COVID-19 pill, which apparently can cut the risk of developing the virus by 89 per cent.
The news for the pill also affected shares of Swiss duty-free retailer Dufryby, which jumped by 10.1 per cent, marking the best day in the market in a year – since November 9 2020, while also pushing down shares of AstraZeneca.
“Today’s news out of the US that Pfizer has developed a Covid-19 pill, which is 89% effective in preventing hospitalisation, may well be weighing on the AstraZeneca share price a touch, but it has pretty much turbo-charged the airlines and hospitality sector,” the Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets, Michael Hewson said.
Similarly, France’s benchmark CAC 40 index on Friday reached the 7,000 points barrier for the first time, and it was up by 0.8 per cent. The blue-chip index, which represents well-known and financially stable publicly traded companies, was led by gains in luxurious companies of Kering, Hermes and L’Oreal group that leads the personal care company.
Moreover, the German DAX group witnessed a revival after weeks of uninterested investors, which put Europe’s largest economy at risk.
In addition, the Polish e-commerce group, Allegro, decided to buy the Czech online retailer Mall group for €881 million, which resulted in a surge of 10.6 per cent and more gains in the STOXX 600.
Spain’s CaixaBank index also jumped by 1.6 per cent, after claiming it sold its entire 9.92 per cent in the Austrian bank Erste Group for €1.503 billion, in which case Erste added a five per cent.
Recently, the travel bosses held a meeting during which all tourism ministers gathered and discussed travelling and tourism investments for a more sustainable industry.
The Glasgow Summit held on November 2 witnessed world leaders pledge their vows to make tourism more climate-friendly.
“Rebalancing our relationship with nature is critical to regenerating both its ecological health and our personal, social and economic wellbeing. It is also critical for tourism, which relies on and connects us with flourishing ecosystems,” the leaders said in what is now the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action on Tourism.
Moreover, they also agreed that aligning and restoring the relationship with nature and human is the key factor for the industry’s recovery from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
