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(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London were largely higher at midday on Thursday, thanks to a strong set of results from drug maker AstraZeneca and renewed takeover talks for lender Standard Chartered.

The FTSE 100 index was up 55.09 points, or 0.7%, at 7,940.26. The FTSE 250 was up 39.69 points, or 0.2%, at 20,343.50. The AIM All-Share was down 0.50 of a point, or 0.1%, at 882.73.

The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.8% at 794.63, the Cboe UK 250 was flat at 17,759.83, and the Cboe Small Companies was up 0.7% at 13,947.25.

Standard Chartered climbed 8.6%, the best blue-chip performer at midday, on a report that First Abu Dhabi Bank is pressing ahead with a potential USD35 billion offer for the London-based lender.

According to a Bloomberg, FAB's proposed acquisition of Standard Chartered is still in play, after a move to put earlier takeover plans on hold "didn't halt its ambitions to become a global financial powerhouse".

Standard Chartered's market value is around USD24 billion, compared to FAB's USD43 billion. Bloomberg suggested that the drop in the pound last autumn added to Standard Chartered's attractiveness.

AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould commented that, if the takeover were successful, it would play into the theory that "industry players are more likely to buy UK-listed companies than private equity in the current environment".

He explained: "Whereas the sharp rise in the cost of debt has made life harder for private equity to do leveraged deals, a lot of businesses have come out of the pandemic in a robust financial shape and have plenty of cash on their books to buy rivals in their respective sectors."

AstraZeneca rose 4.7% as it reported a swing to profit in 2022 amid a double-digit revenue rise, despite a weaker fourth quarter.

The pharmaceutical firm said total revenue in 2022 rose by 19% to USD44.35 billion from USD37.42 billion a year before, or by 24% at constant currency.

It noted that growth came from all therapy areas, as well as the addition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, a US acquisition that was added to AstraZeneca's accounts starting in July 2021.

AstraZeneca swung to a pretax profit of USD2.50 billion from a loss of USD265 million, while core earnings per share jumped 26% to USD6.66.

Entain shares dropped 8.7% after former suitor MGM Resorts International confirmed it was no longer considering a takeover for the gambling operator.

In an earnings call on Wednesday, US casino operator MGM Resorts International squashed any speculation of a potential takeover.

"The simple answer on Entain is no; we've moved on," said MGM Chief Executive Bill Hornbuckle, later adding: "We value the relationship with Entain. We value BetMGM."

BetMGM is the two firms' North American sports betting and gaming entertainment joint-venture, which was started in 2018.

British American Tobacco was down 4.7%. The cigarette maker reported a marginal rise in profit for 2022, amid an "increasingly challenging" economic environment, but it noted that momentum in its New Category was "strong".

The London-based maker of Dunhill, Kent and Lucky Strike cigarettes said pretax profit was up just 1.7% to GBP9.32 billion in 2022 from GBP9.16 billion in 2021. Annual revenue grew 7.7% to GBP27.65 billion from GBP25.68 billion.

New Categories were now a "meaningful" contributor to group's financial results, it said, expecting this emerging business to be profitable in 2024, one year ahead of target.

In 2022, the group invested more than GBP2 billion in New Categories, while making progress in reducing operating losses by 62%. British American Tobacco said it was confident of reaching GBP5 billion revenue target for New Categories by 2025.

BAT improved its total dividend by 6.0% to 230.90 pence in 2022 from 217.80p in 2021.

In the FTSE 250 index, Watches of Switzerland lost 7.6% despite reporting a double-digit rise in quarterly revenue and reiterating its full-year guidance.

The luxury watch retailer said revenue rose 17% year-on-year to GBP407 million from GBP348 million. This was driven by luxury watches "where demand continues to exceed supply", it said.

Elsewhere in London, Genedrive jumped 27% as the UK National Institute for Health & Care Excellence preliminarily recommended its antibiotic hearing loss test, the MT-RNR1 ID kit.

The committee concluded MT-RNR1 can "quickly and accurately" identify babies with the primary genetic variant who may be at risk of hearing loss if given aminoglycoside antibiotics, according to Genedrive.

In European equities on Thursday, the CAC 40 index in Paris was up 1.2%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was up 1.3%.

The euro stood at USD1.0763 at midday on Thursday in London, higher against USD1.0734 at the close on Wednesday. The pound was quoted at USD1.2138, higherr compared to USD1.2084. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY131.03, lower compared to JPY131.29.

The dollar fell back slightly despite fairly hawkish rhetoric from two further US Federal Reserve policymakers on Wednesday, who echoed Fed Chair Jerome Powell's words a day earlier, confirming that the US central bank was not finished raising rates.

New York Fed President John Williams said that US monetary policy could turn even tighter than originally anticipated, while Fed Governor Christopher Weller warned that the inflation fight is not over, with the potential for rates in excess of market expectations a possibility.

Stocks in New York were called higher, bouncing back from lower close on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was called up 0.6%, the S&P 500 index up 0.8%, and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.2%. On Wednesday, the Dow had lost 0.6%, the S&P 1.1% and the Nasdaq 1.7%.

Shares in Alphabet plunged 7.7% in New York on Wednesday after Google's new artificial intelligence-powered chatbot Bard made a blunder in an ad.

The bot was asked about what to tell a nine-year-old about discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope. It incorrectly offered the response that the telescope was the first to take pictures of a planet outside Earth's solar system, when that honour actually belongs to the European Very Large Telescope.

The mess-up sent the share price spiralling. Analysts have suggested Google rushed its Bard announcement under pressure from Microsoft - which has invested in ChatGPT owner OpenAI - but Google Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan denied the claim.

Alphabet was up 0.6% in pre-market trade on Thursday. Microsoft finished 0.3% lower on Wednesday, but was up 1.8% in the pre-market.

Brent oil was quoted at USD85.21 a barrel at midday in London on Thursday, up from USD84.01 late Wednesday. Gold was quoted at USD1,881.64 an ounce, higher against USD1,878.10.

Still to come on Thursday's economic calendar, the US will publish its weekly unemployment claims report at 1330 GMT.

By Heather Rydings, Alliance News senior economics reporter

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