Europe markets extend gains at open

Europe's main stock markets climbed further in opening deals on Tuesday, mirroring Asian gains on hopes for a vaccine to treat coronavirus, dealers said.

Share prices across Europe had already won a shot in the arm in Monday following a 500 billion euro ($542 billion) FrenchGerman agreement to help the European Union economy combat COVID- 19 fallout.

At the opening bell, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of major bluechip firms rose 0.7 percent to 6,091.64 points, compared with Monday's close.

In the eurozone, Frankfurt's DAX 30 index won 1.0 percent to 11,174.37 points and the Paris CAC 40 gained 0.5 percent to 4,519.24.

New York stocks had soared Monday after US biotech firm Moderna reported "positive interim" results in early testing of a vaccine candidate, with some analysts suggesting that if all goes well it could be in use by the end of the year.

"Shares on Wall Street surged during Monday's session after drug company Moderna reported positive data on early stage coronavirus vaccine trials," noted Scope Markets analyst James Hughes.

"Stocks in Europe and Asia followed suit," he added.

Europe's bourses were boosted Monday after France and Germany on Monday proposed a vast fund to finance recovery of the EU's economy from the devastation wrought by the coronavirus crisis.

Investors have meanwhile shrugged off US President Donald Trump's surprise announcement that he is taking hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that his own government experts say is not suitable for fighting the novel coronavirus.

The number of coronavirus cases in Russia hit nearly 300,000 on Tuesday as authorities registered more than 9,000 new infections after saying the virus situation had stabilised.

Health officials reported 9,263 new infections in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 299,941, the second- highest in the world after the United States.

Prime Minister Mikhail

Mishustin, who along with several other senior officials has tested positive for the virus, said Monday the country had stopped the growth of new infections but cautioned that the situation remains "difficult".

Tuesday's tally saw new cases fall below 10,000 for the fourth day in a row, after Monday's count saw new infections under 9,000 for the first time since the beginning of May.

There were 115 new coronavirus fatalities since the last update on Monday, bringing Russia's total to 2,837.

Critics have cast doubt on Russia's low official mortality rate, accusing authorities of under-reporting in order to play down the scale of the crisis.

Russian health officials say one of the reasons the count is lower than in the United States and parts of western Europe is that only deaths directly caused by the virus are being included.

Authorities also say that since the virus came later to Russia, there was more time to prepare hospital beds and launch widescale testing to slow the spread.