MARKET REPORT: Drugs firm Shire eye £40billion merger
DRUGS giant Shire improved 115p to 5425p amid talk of a possible £40billion-plus merger with US group BioMarin Pharmaceutical.
Broker UBS weighed in telling clients to buy Shire with a 6600p price target.
A drop in oil prices fuelled support for airlines EASYJET and IAG, up 21p to 1858p and 7p to 594p.
Vodafone Group rang up a ¾p rise to 224¾p after it spent £2.8billion in the latest auction of airwaves in India.
A partnership deal with a US cloud-based provider of procurement services, whose first customer is expected to be worth $600,000 (£400,000) a year, lifted CloudBuy 3p to 23½p. Digital music and radio services company 7digital hit a higher note, up 3p to 17¾p after boardroom buying.
Scientific instruments company Judges Scientific fell 227½p to 1460p after annual pre-tax profit dropped nearly 12 per cent to £6.5million.
A 10-year global deal for engineers Spirax-Sarco to use its micro-turbines and compressors boosted Corac ¼p to 4½p.
