LONDON MARKET OPEN: Drug Stocks Hit By Clinton Price-Gouging Tweet

Tue, 22nd Sep 2015 07:38

LONDON (Alliance News) - London-listed stocks opened largely lower Tuesday, with the focus on individual stocks, as pharmaceutical company shares were sold after US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted about "price gouging" in the specialty drug market.

On her official twitter account Monday, Clinton cited a New York Times article which said the price of the Daraprim drug, which treats a life-threatening parasitic infection, soared to USD750 a tablet from USD13.50 a tablet overnight.

Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, tweeted "price gouging like this in the specialty drug market is outrageous. Tomorrow I'll lay out a plan to take it on".

Shares in US pharmaceutical companies dropped on Monday following the tweet and London-listed pharmaceuticals were following suit early Tuesday. AstraZeneca was down 2.2%, Shire down 2.7% and GlaxoSmithKline down 1.8%.

Elsewhere, miners were again amongst the worst performers in the blue-chip index after downgrades from Credit Suisse. Antofagasta was down 3.5% after the bank cut it to Underperform from Neutral, while Anglo American was down 3.5% after being cut to Neutral from Outperform.

In the FTSE 250, IG Group was the best performer, up 3.8% after it said its revenue increased substantially in the first quarter against a weak comparative, but said the volatile market conditions make it difficult to predict an outcome for the full year.

The spread betting and contracts-for-difference company, which gives retail traders access to financial markets, said it is trading in line with its expectations at present, with revenue in the first quarter to the end of August up 24% to GBP106.0 million, though it noted the same period last year was "particularly subdued".

Card Factory was another strong performer, up 1.1%, after it said it made a profit in the first half of its financial year, having suffered a loss the year before, as revenue rose and it declared payment of a special dividend.

The card and gifts retailer said that it made a pretax profit of GBP24 million in the six months ended July 31, after it suffered a GBP7.9 million pretax loss in the same period the prior year, boosted in the current year due to a significant reduction in net financing expenses to GBP2.1 million from GBP11.2 million.

Breakdown cover and roadside assistance company AA was the heaviest faller in the FTSE 250, down 5.9%. The company said its trading profit fell in the first half, though it said it is trading in line for the full year and said it will pay an interim dividend, its first since listing in mid-2014.

AA said its trading earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation in the half to the end of July was down to GBP199.2 million from GBP211.8 million a year earlier, blamed by the company on the early phasing of marketing spend, the roll-out of diagnostic technology, a run-off of a former credit card account in its financial services division, the weak euro in Ireland, and higher operating costs.

AG Barr reported a fall in profit in the first half of its financial year, as the Scottish soft drinks company said revenue was hit by challenging market conditions, poor weather and a tough comparative period last year.

AG Barr, which makes brands including Irn-Bru and Rubicon, reported a fall in pretax profit in the six months ended July 25 to GBP16.9 million from GBP19.0 million in the first half of the prior year, as revenue declined to GBP130.3 million from GBP135.7 million. The company traded down 4.9%.

Just after the open, the blue-chip FTSE 100 index traded down 0.6% at 6,074.43, the FTSE 250 was down 0.4% at 16,820.56, while London's junior market AIM traded lower, with the AIM All-Share index down 0.3% at 737.83.

In Europe, the CAC 40 index in Paris was down 0.4% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt traded down 0.1%.

Stocks in Asia were higher, with the Hang Seng index up 1.1% and the Shanghai Composite up 0.9%. The Japanese market remains closed for holiday until Thursday.

Still ahead in the economic calendar, UK public sector net borrowing is at 0930 BST, before the Confederation of British Industry's Industrial Trends Survey at 1100 BST. In the afternoon, the US Redbook index is at 1355 BST just before the housing price index at 1400 BST.

Key for London's listed supermarkets Tuesday, Kantar Worldpanel Supermarket market share data for the 12 weeks to September 13 will be released at 0930 BST.

By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1