(Reuters) - European shares hovered at eight-month highs on Tuesday on optimism around signs of a breakthrough in developing a COVID-19 vaccine, although concerns about the depth of the economic damage from the pandemic capped gains.
The pan-European STOXX 600 (STOXX) was up 0.2% by 0804 GMT, after rallying 4% in the previous session, as U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc (N:PFE) said its COVID-19 vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech SE (O:BNTX), was more than 90% effective in preventing the infection.
Banking (SX7P), travel and leisure (SXTP), and energy (SXEP) stocks were among the biggest gainers in early trading following gains of more than 7% on Monday.
In company news, German sportswear firm Adidas (DE:ADSGn) fell 2.2% even as it said it expects sales to return to growth in China in the fourth quarter.