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LONDON: News of a breakthrough in the race to find a COVID-19 vaccine sparked one of the heaviest trading days since the height of the pandemic crisis, according to early data analyzed by Reuters, at nearly $ 2 trillion. changing hands on Monday.
Traders stampeded into riskier stocks in the equity, currency and bond markets after Pfizer Inc released positive data on its vaccine test, as they emerged from safe havens like tech stocks, Japanese yen, and high-end bonds. qualification.
“Volumes are also increasing as programs and baskets work to correct portfolio balances or address margin calls,” said Mark Taylor, sales operator at Mirabaud Securities, highlighting an increase in volumes across sectors. of airlines and banking.
In the United States, about $ 500 billion worth of trading passed through the stock markets on Monday, one of the busiest days since March, when coronavirus lockdown fears rocked financial markets. Europe saw US $ 120 billion traded, according to Refinitiv data.
Value stocks, generally companies that are more sensitive to economic cycles, performed their best in one day against their growth-focused peers in the United States after Monday’s news of an effective coronavirus vaccine.
A similar trend was noted in the bond and currency markets, where volumes coincided with panic trading seen during the depth of market chaos in March and double that of April when the coronavirus pandemic hit the markets.
The total turnover of the 33 currency pairs in CLS, one of the main colonists of operations in the foreign exchange markets, amounted to 627 billion dollars on Monday. Average daily turnover was $ 707 billion in March and $ 380 billion in April.
The bond market turnover also soared. Nearly 170,000 contracts changed hands on popular first-month German bond futures contracts, 1.5 times the average this year, according to Refinitiv data.
The total turnover of German government bonds amounted to nearly 9 billion euros ($ 10.63 billion) on Monday, more than the average since early October, according to data from Marketaxess, a major trading platform.
“Turnover was roughly three times the 30-day average daily cash volume and very active in the futures space,” said Jimmy Conway, head of EMEA equity trading strategy at Citibank.
