LONDON: Europe’s stock markets opened lower Thursday with Britain set to leave the European single market on the final trading day of a tumultuous 2020 that was rocked by Brexit and coronavirus.
In initial deals, London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index sank 1.3 percent to 6,469.67 points, before an early New Year’s Eve closure at 1230 GMT.
The Paris CAC 40 meanwhile shed 0.6 percent to 5,567.21 points before its early finish at 1300 GMT.
London is set for an annual loss of about 14 percent despite clinching a long-awaited Brexit trade deal last week, while Paris faces a drop of about 6.8 percent.
Frankfurt had already shut for business on Wednesday, with the DAX 30 index seeing out the year with a daily fall of 0.3 percent.
However, it rose by 3.6 percent over the course of 2020, despite plummeting in the spring due to the effects of the pandemic.
Markets were buoyed earlier this week by the ramping-up of Covid-19 vaccination drives in Europe, the signing of a pandemic stimulus plan in the United States and the conclusion of a post-Brexit trade deal over the Christmas period.
