Brexit Deal and Coronavirus Vaccine Affected European Stocks

It was not easy for European stocks on Wednesday. It is worth noting that, European stocks closed slightly lower on December 30 after U.K. lawmakers approved a Brexit trade deal and investors reacted to further positive Covid vaccine development.

Interestingly, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 0.34%, with most sectors and major bourses in a negative trajectory.

London’s FTSE 100 index declined 0.7% despite the news about the coronavirus vaccine. The vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca gained approval from authorities in the U.K. 

It is worth noting that, the announcement marks another step in the global battle against the coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, it will allow the country to greatly expand its Covid-19 immunization program started in December. 

Interestingly, European markets are going against a lackluster trend seen in their global counterparts Wednesday. People should take into account that, stocks in Asia-Pacific were mixed on Wednesday trade after major indexes on Wall Street suddenly broke their multi-day winning streaks overnight. At the same time, the dollar weakened against other major currencies. 

Stocks in Asia-Pacific

As stated above, two major factors affected the stocks in Asia-Pacific on December 30. Importantly, the mainland Chinese stocks were higher by their close. The Shanghai Composite added 1.05% to 3,414.45. At the same time, the Shenzhen Component gained 1.656% to 14,201.57.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added about 1.6%, as of its final hour of trading. 

Interestingly, China’s National Bureau of Statistics changed the country’s 2019 GDP growth from 6.1% to 6.0%.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dropped 0.45% to close at 27,444.17. Importantly, the Wednesday losses came after the index surged more than 2% on Tuesday to close at a level not seen since August 1990. On December 30, the Topix index dropped 0.8% to finish its trading day at 1,804.68.

South Korea’s Kospi index advanced 1.88% to close at 2,873.47. 

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.27% to 6,682.40. 

It is worth mentioning that, Wednesday was the final trading day in 2020 for stocks in South Korea and Japan as their markets will be closed on Thursday. 

Authorities in the U.S., as well as other countries, are trying to solve the problems. The coronavirus pandemic affected a lot of companies. However, it would take to cope with all issues. Hopefully, they are ready to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to reach this goal.