The New Zealand stock market opened with a hiss and a roar following news of significant progress in a vaccine against Covid-19.
Photo: AFP
In a milestone in the search for a defence against the outbreak, US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German firm BioNTech have announced their experimental vaccine is 90 percent effective in preventing Covid-19.
The NZX 50 Index opened more than 2 percent up, to a high of 12,840 points, building on yesterday's record close, before easing back slightly.
The companies hit hardest by months of travel bans and lockdowns soared.
There have been big gains in Auckland Airport, Air New Zealand, Tourism Holdings and Millennium Hotels.
On the downside, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, which manufactures respiratory equipment, is down about 7 percent.
Wall Street's S&P 500 and Dow indices also hit record intra-day highs on Monday as the first successful data from a late-stage Covid-19 vaccine trial spurred hopes of an economic recovery, though they later gave up some of those gains.
The FTSE 100 also jumped, by nearly 5 percent, while markets in Europe made similar gains.
It is very rare for markets to jump by such large margins, and in the case of the UK saw the FTSE 100 adding £82bn to the value of its shares in the market's best day since March - one of the ten largest ever single-day gains for the index
- RNZ / BBC
