Vaccine hopes boost Covid-hit stock markets

Financial traders monitoring data on the trading floor inside the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Photographer: Yuriko Nakao/Bloomberg

European stocks closed at over a five-week high, with travel stocks surfing a wave of optimism following reports of progress in developing a Covid-19 vaccine.

Investors were encouraged by an early-stage study on US biotech firm Moderna’s experimental vaccine for Covid-19 that provoked immune responses.