MILAN/FRANKFURT: European shares rose for a third straight day on Wednesday as optimism around a potential Covid-19 vaccine and encouraging comments from European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde offset worries of economic damage from surging infections.

The pan-European STOXX 600 jumped 1%, building on a 6% rally this week as investors bought into utilities as well as travel-related stocks, a sector that has

widely underperformed this year.

Technology stocks, which have tracked a surge in their US counterparts since the coronavirus-driven crash in March, gained 2%.

The benchmark STOXX 600 has surged nearly 45% since March, thanks partly to historic global stimulus, but it is still down 6.5% on the year as the resurgence in Covid-19 cases threatens a nascent economic recovery.

Meanwhile, the European third-quarter earnings season has been largely better than expected, with about 68% of the STOXX 600 companies that have reported so far beating estimates, according to Refinitiv data.

E.ON, Germany’s largest energy firm, gained 1% after it said demand had recovered faster than expected from the coronavirus crisis, while maintaining its 2020 forecast.

German auto supplier Continental fell 0.8% as it warned of further restructuring expenses in the fourth quarter.

Dutch bank ABN Amro slid 5.6% as it remained cautious despite reporting a much better-than-expected quarterly profit. European banks rose 0.2%.

Nordea Bank fell 5% after Finnish insurer Sampo said it had sold 4% of the share capital in the bank in an accelerated bookbuild offering to institutional investors.

Among country indexes, German stocks rose 0.4%, while London’s FTSE 100 and France’s CAC 40 added 1.4% and 0.5%, respectively.—Reuters