London midday: Stocks drift but AstraZeneca surges on drug trial results

There wasn't much for traders to sink their teeth into on the final session of the week, with shares in London just a smidgen higher by midday as macroeconomic and corporate news was thin on the ground.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.1% to 7,393.15, while the pound was down 0.2% versus the dollar at 1.2858.

Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital, said: "It’s pretty quiet in the markets today as a general sense of calm and low volumes and volatility keeps it all very sedate.

"The big mover is AstraZeneca, which has got a massive shot in the arm from a successful cancer drug trial. It’s been quite a busy week for pharma stocks, after Hikma suffered a near 10% fall in a day after its generic version of GSK’s Advair Viskus failed to get a green light from US regulators."

AstraZeneca rallied as it said its durvalumab immuno-oncology drug became the first such medicine to successfully treat advanced lung cancer patients who had not had success with chemotherapy. Elsewhere in the sector, Hikma Pharmaceuticals was having another down day, leading the fallers following its asthma drug delay the previous day.

Support services group Interserve nudged higher after reiterating its guidance for full-year 2017 and saying trading in the first four months of the year has been in line in all divisions.

Broker notes helped to provide some action. Standard Life was boosted by an upgrade to 'outperform' from 'sector performance' by RBC Capital Markets. Ibstock was lifted as Berenberg initiated coverage of the stock at 'buy' while Shaftesbury was given a leg up by an upgrade to 'buy' at Citigroup and IAG flew higher after an upgrade by Kepler.

Peppa Pig owner Entertainment One fell after saying it expects to report around £47m of one-off costs for the year to the end of March 2017 after it renegotiated one of its larger film distribution arrangements as part of its wider reshaping of the film division.

Lloyds Banking Group was under the cosh following a report that it may have to pay £80m to compensate customers in a fresh mis-selling scandal.

Non-standard lender Provident Financial was also in the red despite announcing that its Vanquis Bank and Moneybarn operations had made a good start to the year, trading in line with internal plans and “making excellent progress” in delivering the initiatives to augment medium-term growth.

Temporary power provider Aggreko slipped as it announced the appointment of former British Gas and Virgin Media executive Stephen Beynon as managing director of the Power Solutions division.

There are no major UK data releases due, but in the US, retail sales are at 1330 BST, along with the consumer price index, while Michigan consumer sentiment is at 1500 BST.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,393.15 0.09%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,802.22 0.03%
techMARK (TASX) 3,571.27 0.84%

FTSE 100 - Risers

AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,962.00p 4.52%
BT Group (BT.A) 303.65p 1.95%
Royal Mail (RMG) 429.70p 1.58%
St James's Place (STJ) 1,181.00p 1.29%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,740.00p 1.23%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 208.65p 1.16%
Standard Life (SL.) 388.90p 0.99%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,643.50p 0.98%
Kingfisher (KGF) 348.20p 0.90%
Informa (INF) 653.00p 0.85%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,740.00p -3.06%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 68.34p -1.89%
Glencore (GLEN) 285.50p -1.57%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,378.00p -1.12%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 862.00p -1.09%
GKN (GKN) 348.20p -0.97%
Provident Financial (PFG) 3,234.00p -0.95%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,633.00p -0.91%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 196.80p -0.91%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,963.00p -0.90%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Ibstock (IBST) 241.10p 4.37%
Just Eat (JE.) 577.50p 3.03%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,901.00p 2.37%
Metro Bank (MTRO) 3,560.00p 2.33%
Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 1,891.00p 2.22%
Man Group (EMG) 161.60p 2.15%
Renishaw (RSW) 3,597.00p 1.98%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 769.50p 1.92%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 360.40p 1.84%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 1,781.00p 1.83%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Evraz (EVR) 191.70p -4.63%
Assura (AGR) 59.60p -2.21%
Softcat (SCT) 439.50p -2.03%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 200.70p -1.86%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 161.90p -1.76%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 619.00p -1.75%
Marshalls (MSLH) 402.00p -1.64%
Capita (CPI) 551.00p -1.61%
Savills (SVS) 937.00p -1.58%
Pets at Home Group (PETS) 162.00p -1.52%