European Markets Close On Buoyant Note

(RTTNews) - European markets ended on a high note on Tuesday as hopes for U.S. coronavirus stimulus and news about Russia registering the first vaccine 'Sputnik V.' against the coronavirus pandemic outweighed concerns about U.S.-China tensions.

Data showing a notable surge in car sales in China in the month of July, pushed up prices of auto stocks and contributed to markets' gains. Surging oil prices triggered strong buying in shares of energy companies.

The pan European Stoxx 600 surged up 1.68%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 moved up 1.71%, Germany's DAX climbed 2.04% and France's CAC 40 jumped 2.41%, while Switzerland's SMI gained 0.62%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey ended higher by 1 to 3.2%. Portugal ended moderately higher.

In the U.K. market, TUI surged up 9.6%. IAG and EasyJet gained more than 8% and 6.5%, respectively. Carnival ended nearly 6.5% up.

ITV, Evraz, Whitbread, Compass Group, Standard Chartered, Intercontinental, Barclays, HSBC Holdings, Lloyds Banking Group, Glencore, Meggitt, Associated British Foods, Ashtead Group, BP and Royal Dutch Shell also rose sharply.

On the other hand, Fresnillo tumbled 7.7%. Polymetal International declined 4.2%. Rentokil Initial, Hikma Pharmaceutical, Segro, National Grid and Reckitt Benckiser lost 1 to 2.2%.

In the German market, Continental climbed more than 9%. Lufthansa, BMW and Volkswagen gained 6.4%, 5.8% and 5.2%, respectively.

Covestro, Infineon Technologies, Adidas, Daimler, Allianz, BASF, Deutsche Bank, HeidelbergCement, Deutsche Post, Bayer, Linde and SAP gained 1.5 to 4.3%.

In France, Unibail Rodamco and Valeo gained nearly 8.5% and 8%, respectively. Accor moved up 6.7%, while Peugeot, Airbus Group, Safran and Technip gained 5 to 6%.

Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas, Sodexo, Renault, Publicis Groupe, ArcelorMittal, Societe Generale, Vivendi, Michelin and STMicroElectronics advanced 3 to 5%.

In economic news, German economic confidence improved notably in August, survey data from the ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research showed.

The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment increased unexpectedly to 71.5 in August from 59.3 in July. The score was forecast to fall to 58.0.

Meanwhile, the current conditions index dropped 0.4 points to -81.3 in August, while it was expected to rise to -68.8.

Around 730,000 people have lost their jobs in the United Kingdom since the Covid-19 lockdown began in March, the biggest drop in quarterly employment since the 2009 financial crisis, official data showed.

Separately, monthly data from the British Retail Consortium revealed that U.K. like-for-like retail sales increased strongly in July as lockdown measures were eased and demand gradually began to return in some places.

Like-for-like sales increased 4.3% on a yearly basis in July compared to an annual growth of 0.3% in the same period last year. On a total basis, retail sales grew 3.2% in July versus an increase of 0.5% in July 2019.

It was above the 3-month average growth of 0.4% and the 12 month average decline of 1.9%. This was the second consecutive month of growth since the start of the pandemic.

In coronavirus news, French Prime Minister Castex said France was extending a ban on gatherings of more than 5,000 people until the end of October and would draw up new restrictions in the 20 largest cities in an attempt to curb the rising infection rate.

News that Russia has approved a coronavirus vaccine, with Russian President Vladimir Putin claiming the vaccine works "quite effectively," lifted sentiment in the market.

"It forms a stable immunity and, I repeat, has passed all the necessary checks," Putin said at a meeting with members of the government, according to RIA Novosti.

The speed of the development of the vaccine has raised questions about its safety, although the news has still generated optimism the coronavirus pandemic can be contained in the relatively near future.