(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) London shares closed slightly higher on Thursday after trailing lower most of the day as telecoms giant BT () offered strong support.
Its shares surged 4.49% to 442p after investors cheered its £12.5bn takeover of EE sealed last night.
The tie-up puts BT - the former state-owned phone giant on the path to become a quad-play operator - offering fixed line broadband TV and mobile services to its customers.
On the losing side drugs giant () lost 3.39% to 4529p as it left the market underwhelmed with its fourth quarter results.
Revenue for the Anglo-Swedish major was 2% below consensus according to broker Jefferies primarily due to lower than expected sales of Nexium and Symbicort.
The group also said it would pay US$600mln for the rights to Actavis’s branded respiratory drugs business in North America.
Last May Astra fought off a £70bn takeover bid from US giant and Viagra maker Pfizer and today Pfizer was back in the news revealing it was going to purchase Hospira a global pharmaceutical and medical device company and the biggest provider of injectable drugs for an eye-watering US$17bn. The news may have sent the realisation further through investors’ mind s that Pfizer is now even more unlikely to come back and bid for Astra.
In macro news after what had been some promising noises over Greece's bailout package earlier in the week the ECB said yesterday it would lift the waiver on using Greek government bonds as collateral for lending to its banks.
It means the central bank has toughened its stance by restricting financing to the country's banks sending shares falling.
David Madden from spreadbetter IG said earlier: "The ECB is showing Athens who is boss and the move has crushed Greece under the weight of its own debt.”
() the drinks can maker added 20.20% to 538p as it confirmed it could be bought by US rival Ball Corporation.
told investors it is in talks with Ball over a proposal worth 610p per share which would be paid mostly in cash (one third of the consideration would be made in Ball shares).
In small cap world shares in AfriAg () rose 13.04% to 0.39p after revealing a new distribution deal that will see produce from Mozambique shipped to UK supermarkets.
A 40%-owned subsidiary of the AIM-listed company has won a contract to transport produce farmed by Vanduzi which is part of Lord ’s Gatsby Foundation.
AfriAg told investors that the majority of the fresh produce will be sold on the shelves of M&S Aldi and Asda.
() dipped 3.85% to 0.25p after it revealed acquired a technology that rapidly analyses gene expression biomarkers to boost its cancer drug development efforts.
The technology 'Transcript Analysis with the Aid of Affinity Capture' (TRAC) cost €75000 and will be used by ’s biomarker unit based in Finland.
Satu Vainikka ’s chief executive said: "The acquisition of the TRAC technology platform will synergistically strengthen our biomarker development capabilities and our biomarker library at ValiFinn and it will also substantially support our on-going clinical trials programme.
() added 12.5% to 5.625p as executives bought shares in the firm worth more than £23000.
Executive chairman John W Barr bought 250000 shares at 5.31p yesterday (Feb 4) for £13375 while Andrew Carroll technical director bought 200000 shares at 5.025p for £10050.
Carroll is now beneficially interested in around 12.04% of the company and Barr around 11.27%.
Another strong gainer was Rambler Metals and Mining ( CVE:RAB) which added 21.43% to 12.75p.
The firm is 'defending hard' amid the sharp drop in copper prices says house broker Cantor which remains a buyer.
Its prompt cost cutting measures and a strong US dollar look set to temper the blow caused by the metal price's decline and some short-term grade issues at its flagship Ming mine said Asa Bridle mining analyst.
West African Minerals () said it had uncovered a ‘high quality’ iron ore deposit as it unveiled the maiden resource statement for the Sanaga project in coastal Cameroon.
Just 60km from the port at Douala and within 10km of the rail line Sanaga is estimated to contain 82.9mln tonnes of ore at 32.1% iron and a 25% cut-off.
This includes a 15.8mln-tonne near-surface oxidised cap at 37.3% iron. Shares rose 4.67% to 2.8p each.
Another riser was () which rose 15.38% to 0.075p.
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