As August has ended, it is time to look back on another month of trading. For the seventh month in a row, American and European equities ended in the green. The S&P 500 set a new closing record on the last day of the month, driven by tech stocks, and ended August up by 2.90%. The EURO STOXX 50 increased by 2.62%.
In this article, we discuss the company that made an appearance on the map for the first time and share August’s biggest winner and loser.

Newcomer on the map
While we see some companies on the map month after month, Valneva made its map debut. It was the most traded stock by our French clients and is a biotechnology company that focuses on the development and commercialisation of prophylactic vaccines. The company claims that its Covid-19 vaccine candidate VLA2001 is the only whole virus, inactivated, adjuvanted vaccine candidate in clinical trials in Europe. In August, Valneva filed for initial approval of VLA2001 with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK. The company hopes to get approved by the end of the year. Stock prices responded well to the company’s developments with its vaccine last month, with prices ending August up by 77.40%.
Biggest movements
The companies that saw the biggest price movements during August were Valneva and Alibaba. As mentioned, Valneva’s stock price soared by 77.40% last month. Alibaba, a Chinese technology giant that specialises in e-commerce, was on the losing end, with prices dropping by 14.45%. Alibaba’s stock price has been negatively impacted this year driven by crackdowns from Chinese regulators.
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Open an accountThe information in this article is not written for advisory purposes, nor does it intend to recommend any investments. Please be aware that facts may have changed since the article was originally written. Investing involves risks. You can lose (a part of) your deposit. We advise you to only invest in financial products that match your knowledge and experience.
Sources: Bloomberg, Yahoo! Finance, Valneva