London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.5% at 7,064.59 in afternoon trade on Wednesday.
AstraZeneca was the top gainer on the index after it said that its newly-acquired Alexion business will buy the remaining shares of drug maker Caelum Biosciences for up to $500m. The company said it was buying Caelum for CAEL-101, “a potentially first-in-class fibril-reactive monoclonal antibody (mAb)” for the treatment of light chain (AL) amyloidosis.
Next was also on the rise after the fashion retailer raised full-year guidance as it reported a rise in interim profits and sales as stores reopened from Covid pandemic lockdowns. The company forecast pre-tax profit of £800m, up 6.9% from 2019 and £36m ahead of previous guidance of £764m. Full price sales for the rest of the year were expected to be 10% higher from 2019.
Anglo American was boosted by an upgrade to ‘outperform’ from ‘sector perform’ at RBC Capital Markets.
“With the shares having pulled back and platinum group metals prices stabilising, Anglo’s diversified and growth-heavy portfolio of assets returns to our outperform list,” RBC said.
On the downside, Royal Mail was hit by a downgrade to ‘sell’ at UBS.
FTSE 100 – Risers
AstraZeneca (AZN) 8,772.00p 3.52%
Entain (ENT) 2,202.00p 2.37%
Next (NXT) 8,264.00p 2.28%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,824.00p 2.10%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,568.00p 2.07%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,436.00p 2.05%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 392.85p 1.95%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 582.40p 1.82%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 46.27p 1.69%
Ferguson (FERG) 10,405.00p 1.66%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Royal Mail (RMG) 444.90p -7.16%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 972.20p -1.40%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,236.50p -1.36%
Admiral Group (ADM) 3,144.00p -1.13%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 3,502.00p -1.13%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 157.00p -1.07%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,654.00p -1.01%
ITV (ITV) 107.25p -0.74%
Kingfisher (KGF) 343.40p -0.72%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,323.00p -0.64%
