Britain's top shares rose for the fifth straight day on Thursday as a cheery outlook from drugs giant AstraZeneca and strong demand for a big share placing in Royal Bank of Scotland helped the FTSE 100 eke out a slim gain and post its highest finish for almost three weeks. AstraZeneca shares jumped 4.1 percent after Europe's third-biggest drug maker reported a 19 percent rise in 2004 earnings and said strong demand for established medicines and tight cost control would drive growth this year, offering relief after several new product setbacks.
"Their guidance is quite positive for the year going forward," said Michael Gifford, a fund manager at F&C. "It answers a lot of the bears who have got short positions on this stock."
The FTSE 100 share index closed up 6.3 points at 4,853.4 - towards the top of the day's narrow 25-point range and just 10 points shy of its 2-1/2 year intraday high from early this month. A mixed start by US shares contributed to a subdued tone, with early results on Wall Street not as bright as in recent days, but the technology sector pushing ahead.
Dealers said an improvement in results had underpinned a rise in the past week, and a strong appetite for many of the bigger names was evidenced by the quick take-up of a 1.4 billion pound share placing in Royal Bank of Scotland this morning.
RBS shares ended up 0.9 percent at 1,756 pence, after the sale of 81.6 million RBS shares, or a 2.6 percent stake, by Spain's Santander at 1,720p per share was well absorbed.
"There's obviously resistance near this level (on the FTSE), but I think we can push through this area. The technical picture is reasonably good and some more confident outlooks from one or two companies will help the market," said Adrian Clayton, fund manager at Christows Stockbrokers.
Banks were also helped by lingering talk of more consolidation. Lloyds TSB added 1.2 percent as dealers said talk it could be a possible take-over target failed to die down and was backed up by its high dividend yield and optimism its Scottish Widows unit will have benefited from this week's good growth figures from insurers.
Standard Chartered rose 2.1 percent following a report that J.P. Morgan might be interested in buying a stake in the Asia-focused bank.
"It's a combination of the backdrop being pretty favourable to the banks and insurers and a bit of bid speculation," said Paul Kavanagh, head of market strategy at private client stockbroker Killik.
But insurer Royal & Sun Alliance missed out and dipped 0.9 percent after the Financial Times said US auto-maker General Motors had filed a lawsuit against the company for asbestos-related claims.
Miners were helped higher after BHP Billiton, up 0.3 percent, reported sharply higher quarterly output for a range of minerals, but drinks firm Allied Domecq shed 0.7 percent as jitters surfaced that a trading update on Friday could show a slight slowdown in the US market due to rising competition.
United Utilities was the biggest FTSE failure, down 2.1 percent after Deutsche Bank cut its rating on the water and electricity group to "hold".
Mid-cap radio firms were hit hard by the latest industry listener data, with Chrysalis tumbling 7 percent and rival Capital Radio down 3.2 percent after the data showed their flagship London stations had both lost market share.
Shares in the London Stock Exchange itself added 0.8 percent to 579p after Deutsche Boerse published details of its proposed take-over, prompting the LSE to reject the offer as too low but leaving the door open to a higher offer. Rival Euronext said it was continuing talks with the LSE.
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