European stocks near 9-month high as vaccine excitement builds

European stocks rose in early trading on Tuesday, resuming gains after taking a pause yesterday on profit-taking, rising near the 9-month peak once again thanks to a strong market sentiment following successive positive news about the coronavirus vaccines.

 The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.7% as of 11:35 GMT, after it closed lower by 0.5% yesterday on profit-taking from the highest since February of 392.97 points.

The pan European index opened higher today, and rose near a 9-month higher, with most of the major European markets and sectors seeing green.

The energy sector saw the largest gains in Europe today, rising more than 3%, thanks to a broad rally in oil prices.

The Russian authorities announced on Tuesday that the Sputnik-V vaccine is 95% effective in preventing Covid-19, according to the results from the final phase of clinical trials.

The British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced on Monday that its vaccine, developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford, was about 70% effective in preventing Covid-19.

The US General Services Administration officially announced that Democratic candidate Joe Biden has won the 2020 US presidential election, becoming the 46 US president and succeeding Republican President Donald Trump, whose term ends on January 20, 2021.

President Donald Trump on Monday gave the green light for the transition of power to the president-elect Joe Biden's team and ordered his team to cooperate with the new administration, which is considered as Trump's official conceding of the election, despite his comments of continuing the legal fight on the results.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.75%, after the index closed higher by 0.7% yesterday on Wall Street.

Back to Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 1.1%, France's CAC 40 rose 1.4%, Germany's DAX added 1.1%, and the UK's FTSE 100 rose 1.2%.