European Markets Close Notably Higher On Vaccine News, Chinese Industrial Data

European markets closed higher on Monday, buoyed up rising optimism over effective coronavirus vaccine thanks to positive news from Moderna.

Signs of progress in Brexit negotiations, and strong economic data from China and Japan also helped outweigh reports showing continued surge in coronavirus cases across the world.

The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 1.18%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 surged up 1.66%, France's CAC 40 moved up 1.7% and Germany's DAX advanced 0.47%, while Switzerland's SMI ended 0.9% up.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia and Spain, Sweden ended with sharp to moderate gains.

Turkey edged up marginally, while Denmark closed weak.

In the German market, Lufthansa rallied more than 6%. Covestro, MTU Aero Engines, Thysessenkrupp, Continental, BMW, Daimler, HeidelbergCement, BASF, Volkswagen, Adidas and Allianz gained 2 to 5.5%. Deutsche Bank and Munich RE also closed notably higher.

Deutsche Whonen, Vonovia and RWE ended sharply lower.

In France, Unibail Rodamco surged up nearly 18% on reports that the company may see its chief executive officer Christophe Cuvillier and Chief Financial Officer Jaap Tonckens leave.

Technip climbed more than 10% and Accor gained nearly 8%. Safran, Airbus Group, ArcelorMittal, Total, Sodexo, Societe Generale, Peugeot, Michelin, STMicroElectronics, Renault, Publicis Groupe and Valeo gained 2.5 to 6%.

In the UK market, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Whitbread and IAG moved up nearly 10%, while Melrose gained 8.5%.

Vodafone climbed nearly 7%. After a "resilient" first-half, the mobile phone operator said it was increasingly confident about its full-year performance. The company maintained its dividend and reiterated its free cash flow and EBITDA guidance.

Royal Dutch Shell, British Land Company, BP, Standard Chartered, Intercontinental Hotels, WPP, Land Securities, Johnson Matthey, Diageo, M&G, HSBC Holdings, Associated British Foods and Smith Ds gained 4 to 6.5%.

Smiths Group gained more than 4.5% after saying it expects to meet market views for the full year.

On the other hand, Ocado Group, Rentokil Initial, Flutter Entertainment, Just Eat Takeaway, Segro, Rightmove and Avast ended sharply lower.

In European economic news, UK house prices declined in November despite continuing strong buyer demand as new sellers joined the rush to sell and beat the March stamp duty deadline, property website Rightmove said. House prices fell 0.5% on a monthly basis, in contrast to a 1.1% rise in October.

Year-on-year, house prices advanced 6.3%, faster than the 5.5% increase seen in October.

In economic news from China, data from the National Bureau of Statistics said China's industrial output rose an annual 6.9% in October, beating forecasts for a gain of 6.5% and roughly unchanged from the September reading.

In news from Japan, the Cabine Office's preliminary report said Japan's gross domestic product jumped 21.4% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2020. That exceeded expectations for an annualized jump of 18.9% following the 28.8% plunge in the previous three months.

On the vaccine front, close on the heels of Pfizer and BioNtech reporting encouraging results from the phase 3 trial of their coronavirus vaccine last week, Moderna Inc. has announced that the trial of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine has proved 94.5% effective in preventing the injection.

Johnson & Johnson is launching a new large-scale late-stage trial in Britain to test a two-dose regimen of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine among thousands of volunteers.

The Oxford Covid vaccine and another one being developed by U.S. biotech company Novavax are already undergoing large clinical trials in British patients.

In a statement overnight, one of the scientists behind the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine said that "if everything continues to go well…we could have a normal winter next year."