HOPE: Shares in FTSE tourism businesses sky-rocket after breakthrough on COVID-19 vaccine

Shares in FTSE companies have shot up today after a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer showed promising results – tourism, entertainment and hospitality have biggest industry winners so far.

The FTSE 100 raced up 5% today with some of the worst-affected stocks during the COVID-19 pandemic leading the market.

Tourism-related business such as airport catering giant Compass shot up 42%, while British Airways’ owner IAG jumped 23% and EasyJet surged 27%.

Premier Inn’s owner Whitbread shot up 17% and InterContinental Hotels group 15%.

Rolls-Royce also leaped 23% as investors hoped for a resumption in orders for its aero engines, report the Evening Standard.

Cineworld – a business forced to shut its doors after Hollywood studios cancelled new movie launches – is also up 37%. 

Trainline, whose online ticket-booking business was troubled by travel bans, jumped 38%.

Investors also put shares into pubs that shut shop due to enforced closures and reduced opening hours: Marston’s, Mitchells & Butlers, JD Wetherspoon, Young’s and City Pub Group respectively gained 17%, 19%, 12.5%, 19.5% and 17.5%.

COVID-19 vaccine

It follows news that the vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech SE prevented more than 90% of infections in first trials.

The data came from a study of 43,538 participants.

Pfizer chairman and chief executive Albert Bourla said: “This is a great day for science and humanity.

“We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing overcapacity and economies struggling to reopen.”

A press release from Pfizer said they are expecting to produce ’50 million vaccine doses’ in 2020, and 1.3 billion in 2021.

Pfizer and BioNTech plan to submit data from the full Phase 3 trial for scientific peer-review publication – the next step.