(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened higher on Wednesday despite declines in Asian equity markets, with AstraZeneca and Next among the best performers in the FTSE 100.
The FTSE 100 index was up 49.96 points, or 0.7%, at 7,077.65. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 194.40 points, or 0.8%, at 23,323.37. The AIM All-Share index was up 4.17 points, or 0.3%, at 1,260.14.
The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.7% at 703.40. The Cboe 250 was up 0.4% at 21,122.30. The Cboe Small Companies was 0.1% lower at 15,705.60.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 stock index in Paris was up 0.7% and the DAX 40 index in Frankfurt was up 0.6%.
In the FTSE 100, AstraZeneca was the best performer, up 3.0%, after the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said its newly acquired Alexion Pharmaceuticals arm will purchase the remaining equity in Caelum Biosciences in a deal worth up to USD500 million.
Alexion will pay Caelum the agreed option exercise price of USD150 million, with the potential for additional payments of up to USD350 million upon achievement of regulatory and commercial milestones.
Caelum Biosciences is developing treatments for AL Amyloidosis, a rare and life-threatening hematologic disorder.
Next was up 2.7% after the clothing and homewares retailer raised its profit guidance and promised shareholders a special dividend early next year.
For the six months to July 31, revenue was GBP2.12 billion, up 5.2% from GBP2.01 billion at the same time in 2019, and pretax profit was GBP346.7 million, up 5.9% from GBP327.4 million. Compared to last year, Next swung to a pretax profit from a loss of GBP16.5 million.
Looking ahead, Next said it is increasing its full-price sales guidance for the year ending January 2022, to be up 10% against 2019. The company added that the longer-term outlook "appears to be more positive than it has been for many years".
Next said it now expects a pretax profit for the full year of GBP800 million, up 6.9% versus 2019 and GBP36 million ahead of its previous guidance.
"It is our intention to distribute any remaining surplus cash generated this year as a second special dividend at the end of January 2022. Any further dividends will be announced in our Christmas trading statement on Thursday 6 January 2022. We currently plan to return to ordinary dividends in the year to January 2023," it said.
Lloyds Banking was up 1.0% after Goldman Sachs raised the lender to Neutral from Sell.
At the other end of the large-caps, Royal Mail was the worst performer, down 5.0%, after UBS double-downgraded the postal operator to Sell from Buy.
Shares in oil majors BP, Royal Dutch Shell 'A' and Shell 'B' were down 1.8%. 1.7% and 2.0% respectively, as oil prices retreated from near three-year highs.
Brent oil was quoted at USD77.75 a barrel Wednesday morning, down sharply from USD79.00 late Tuesday.
BHP Group was down 0.8% after RBC Capital downgraded the miner to Sector Perform from Outperform.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended down 2.1% on Wednesday. In China, the Shanghai Composite finished down 1.8%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 0.2%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed down 1.1%.
The dollar was higher against counterparts. The pound was quoted at USD1.3510 early Wednesday, down from USD1.3545 at the London equities close Tuesday.
The euro was priced at USD1.1657, lower from USD1.1684. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY111.45, up from JPY111.27.
Gold stood at USD1,739.40 an ounce, flat against USD1,739.12 late Tuesday.
The economic calendar on Wednesday has eurozone consumer confidence at 1000 BST. US Fed Chair Jerome Powell, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey all will be speaking at the ECB forum on central banking on Wednesday.
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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