European shares hover at eight-month highs as virus’ economic risks weigh

(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 said its COVID-19 vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech SE , 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 fell 2.2% even as it said it expects sales to return to growth in China in the fourth quarter.

(Reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)