City Pub Group’s chairman Clive Watson said: “The Covid fog is beginning to lift -it’s not back to the races and normality is still a long way off, but the pub sector now has hope and that has been in short supply in the last 9 months.”
Young’s chief executive Patrick Dardis declared: “This is the first bit of good news since March. It is huge a real game changer and should give us all hope that the ‘old normal’ is not yet a lost cause.”
Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of digital advertising group S4Capital cheered the news. "It’s a very important and highly positive development.
“Our planning for 2021 was based on a vaccine being approved, manufactured, distributed and people being vaccinated by Q2. It might now come a little earlier. There are also other potential candidates.”
Neil Wilson, analyst at Markets.com said: "Whilst we are not there yet, news that this vaccine could be highly effective is the best thing markets could hope for.
"Public health officials will remind us there is a long road ahead, and many challenges will be faced along the way, but there is an enormous sense of optimism today – light at the end of the tunnel.
“Let’s just hope the vaccine deniers won’t get in the way, but 2021 just got a lot brighter.”
Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at trading platform OANDA Europe, said: “We've been waiting for this moment for a long time and hopefully others will soon join Pfizer and BioNTech and enable us to break this vicious cycle of lockdowns and cautious reopenings that's killing businesses, causing rising unemployment and massively adding to the debt load around the world.
"This is the light at the end of the tunnel moment and just look at the reaction in the markets. One of incredible relief.”
Seema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Global Investors, said: “All the chips are starting to line up, and market sentiment may be in the early stages of a burst of positive energy.”
Richard Hunter, head of markets at interactive investor, said: “The Pfizer announcement is not yet a panacea, but adds to investor sentiment which had already been buoyed by the Biden victory, and has sent markets to strongly positive levels.
"Beneficiaries of the rally are widespread, particularly among the more beaten-down sectors.
"The airlines and airline-related stocks are on a tear, rising in some cases by over 25%, while housebuilders, banks and retailers are all in the boat currently being lifted by a rising tide.”
Pfizer’s breakthrough led to hopes that people will be keen to return to offices after months of work from home. That boosted shares in Land Securities 15%, British Land 16% and Great Portland Estates up 7%.
FALLERS
The news was not welcomed by all corners of the stock market.
Companies whose shares boomed through the crisis plunged sharply.
Ocado, which has seen sales soar because of lockdown, dropped 8.5%, Just Eat Takeaway.com lost more than 5%, and Reckitt Benckiser, which makes Dettol, fell 5%.
