FTSE 100 movers: Astra and Glaxo provide shot in the arm

The FTSE 100 index was up 0.3% to just over 7,400 by mid afternoon on Friday.

AstraZeneca was sent higher after it trumpeted news that its Imfinzi immuno-oncology drug had become the first ever immune-system-therapy medicine to successfully treat advanced lung cancer patients who had not had success with chemotherapy and who could not have surgery.

According to data from Astra this morning, around 47,000 patients in G7 countries would meet the criteria for treatment as defined by this trial, which analysts calculated would be a market opportunity of more than $4bn.

BT Group shares were rebounding after being sent to three year lows of 297.4p on Thursday when it announced a big fall in profits. Helping the stock were some positive opinions from brokers, with RBC Capital Markets keeping its 'outperform' recommendation and Barclays keeping its 'overweight' stance -- although both sets of analysts trimmed their price target, to 410p and 450p respectively. Barclays said with ever increasing fibre demand, a higher level of fibre-to-the-home is manageable alongside dividend growth.

Vodafone was up in advance of its full-year results on Tuesday. Previewing the numbers, UBS suggested underlying EBITDA growth and free cash flow for the coming financial year "could be more robust than investors expect". Analysts expect Vodafone to deliver +3.1% underlying EBITDA growth for FY-17 versus guidance of 3-6%.

Inclusion in the Labour Party manifesto has done wonders for Royal Mail, with Jeremy Corbyn's call for a re-privatisation of the letters and parcels group sending shares marching above their April highs to hit their highest levels since mid-January.

GlaxoSmithKline continued to recover from its three-month low at the start of the month, helped by good news for its Advair asthma drug. The blockbuster treatment is likely to continue selling reasonably well this year as two generic versions of the drug were not given a green light by the US drug regulator.

One of these generic drug developers is fellow FTSE 100 constituent Hikma Pharmaceuticals. Having received the news on Thursday, its shares continued to fall on Friday, down to its lowest level since mid December, not helped by JP Morgan slashing its target price. The bank said the Food and Drug Administration's response implied a delay on the drug's launch until early 2019 - with a 50.0% probability of success - and this led it to trim estimates for the remainder of Hikma's Roxane pipeline.

Lloyds Banking Group shares were hit on Friday by reports that it may have to pay £80m to compensate customers in a fresh mis-selling scandal. The lender is writing to more than 7,000 customers of the bank and its investment arm Scottish Widows, The Times reported on Friday.

Non-standard lender Provident Financial was among the fallers even though 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 initiatives to boost medium-term growth. However, the company said it would take a one-off exceptional charge of about £20m in the first half of 2017 relating to redundancy, retention and training costs associated with the transition of the home credit business to a new operating model.

FTSE 100 - Risers

AstraZeneca (AZN) 5,081.00p 7.02%
BT Group (BT.A) 305.80p 2.67%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 211.30p 2.45%
Royal Mail (RMG) 432.00p 2.13%
Standard Life (SL.) 392.00p 1.79%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,649.00p 1.32%
St James's Place (STJ) 1,181.00p 1.29%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,741.00p 1.25%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 605.00p 1.17%
ITV (ITV) 190.90p 1.01%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,729.00p -3.68%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 68.24p -2.04%
GKN (GKN) 345.00p -1.88%
Provident Financial (PFG) 3,206.00p -1.81%
Glencore (GLEN) 285.35p -1.62%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,600.00p -1.30%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 860.50p -1.26%
Tesco (TSCO) 178.10p -1.25%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 196.20p -1.21%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,377.00p -1.16%