Leading shares slipped from a five month high as investors nervously awaited the outcome of the latest talks between Greece and its European creditors.
Among the fallers, AstraZeneca lost 82.5p to 4468.5p after a US court declared its patent for Pulmicort Respules - a treatment for asthma symptoms in children - as invalid late on Friday. The company said it strongly disagreed with the decision and was reviewing its legal options, including a possible appeal. It said the ruling did not affect patents in other countries. But rival Actavis immediately launched its generic version of Pulmicort Respules following the court decision.
Overall the FTSE 100 finished down 16.47 points at 6857.05 in quiet trading, with no guidance from Wall Street which was shut for the Presidents’ Day holiday and uncertainty surrounding the eurozone talks.
Precious metals miner Fresnillo fell 38.5p to 840.5p after Morgan Stanley moved from overweight to equalweight but other commodity companies moved higher as copper held steady close to a three week high, with Antofagasta adding 19p to 750p, BHP Billiton 20p better at £15.89 and Vedanta Resources up 37p at 561p.
SABMiller added 66p to 3523.5p following reports of possible takeover interest from investment group 3G Capital.
But Centrica closed down 8.2p at 278.8p as Citigroup cut its price target from 310p to 285p.
Among the mid-caps, Jimmy Choo climbed 6.5p to 170.5p after a positive note from HSBC. The bank raised its rating from neutral to overweight and its price target from 190p to 205p, saying:
Since its all-time high reached on 8 December 2014 of 183p, the share price has declined by 11% while the company should deliver strong earnings growth in 2015-16 and we revised up our estimates in our 2 February luxury thematic report Globe-trotting shopper. The recent share price weakness puts the stock valuation at an attractive level, Jimmy Choo is now trading at a 7% discount versus global listed peers’ average which looks attractive given the 36% and 20% earnings per share growth we expect in 2015 and 2016 respectively (versus 18% and 13% sector average). We believe this provides a good entry-point for this fast growing company.
888 Holdings fell 19p to 151.75p as takeover talks with William Hill, up 2.9p at 385.6p, broke down.
But Bwin party.digital added 6.45p to 90p as Peel Hunt moved from sell to hold. The company said in November it was considering a number of proposals and its shares fell on Friday on fears they too had fallen through. Peel Hunt said:
Friday’s collapse in the share price on concerns that the group was no longer in talks, highlights the fragility of sentiment at bwin.party. However, it also means the risk reward is now more evenly balanced, hence our move to hold.
Finally shares in agricultural bioscience business Plant Impact put on 15% to 41.75p after it unveiled a partnership with Bayer CropScience worth $9m to develop technology for soy cultivation. In a buy note, Peel Hunt said:
This will deliver additional cash ($3m now and $6m in milestones), provides a potential commercialisation partner and adds new geographic markets (the US and Argentina as well as Brazil). This deal de-risks investment in new products and validates the technologies being developed. We have incorporated the additional cash and reduced our risk factor on the soy pipeline. This increases our risked target price to 70p (from 50p) with our unrisked value unchanged at 102p. This takes Plant Impact from being an attractive speculative investment to a serious player in crop enhancement with material upside.
