European stocks rise near 10-month high on vaccines news

European stocks rose on Wednesday, heading for the sixth straight daily gain, near the 10-month high that was hit yesterday, thanks to strong market sentiment after good news about coronavirus vaccines.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.3% as of 11:15, after it closed higher by 0.8% yesterday in the fifth straight daily gain, and hit the highest since February 403.26 points.

The pan European index opened higher today, extending its gains for the sixth straight day, near a 10-month high with most of the major European markets and sectors seeing green.

The UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency officially approved on Wednesday the emergency use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

The vaccine is reportedly known to be 100% effective in preventing Covid-19, which made it one of the first vaccines to be used in most parts of the world.

This also makes it the second vaccine to be approved in Britain, after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was approved for the emergency use on December 2, and was given for the most vulnerable personals and the elderly the following week.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.3%, after the index closed lower by 0.2% yesterday, on profit-taking from its record high of 3,756.12 points.

Back to Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 0.2%, France's CAC 40 rose 0.25%, and Germany's DAX rose over 0.3%, and the UK's FTSE 100 index jumped 0.4%.