* Pharmaceutical and tobacco firms help lift index
* Miners and oils pressured by falls in commodity prices
* Wolseley big riser after above-forecast results
By Harpreet Bhal
LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Britain's leading share index
was up 0.4 percent by midday on Monday, as gains in drugmakers
and tobacco firms outweighed weakness in miners and energy firms
which came under pressure from falling commodity prices.
At 1129 GMT, the FTSE 100 <> added 19.68 points or 0.4
percent at 5,101.88, after closing marginally higher at 5,082.20
on Friday.
Pharmaceutical firms were higher, spurred on by M&A activity
in the sector, notably Belgium's Solvay <SOLB.BR> selling its
pharma business. []
AstraZeneca <AZN.L> rose 2.7 percent as traders cited talk
that of Swiss Rival Novartis <NOVN.VX> could be considering a
takover offer, although a London-based trader called the story
"unlikely". []
GlaxoSmithKline rose 0.8 percent. The drugmaker has
completed an innovative 1.5 billion euro contract with Brazil,
guaranteeing sales of its pneumococcal vaccine Synflorix over
the entire life of the product, the Financial Times said.
Analysts said gains were being kept in check by a lack of
macroeconomic data on Monday, as investors wait for the final
reading of second quarter UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
figures on Tuesday and U.S. nonfarm payrolls numbers at the end
of the weak for further direction.
"We're between (company) reporting seasons so the excitement
is going to be on the macro data. We have got UK GDP figures
tomorrow and non-farm payrolls on Friday so things will hot up,"
said Tim Hughes, head of sales trading at IG Index.
Tobacco firms were higher, with Imperial Tobacco <IMT.L> up
0.8 percent as Investec raised its target price for ther firm to
1,910 pence from 1,630 pence. Peer British American Tobacco
<BATS.L> put on 1.4 percent.
Wolseley <WOS.L> made it to the top of the FTSE 100 gainers
list, adding 10.6 percent following above-forecast full-year
results from the plumbing supllies firm which prompted Deutsche
Bank to upgrade its rating on the stock to "buy" from "hold".
[]
Mid cap peer Travis Perkins <TPK.L> was the top FTSE 250
riser, up 4.8 percent.
On the downside, lower metals prices weighed on mining
stocks. Anglo American <AAL.L>, Antofagasta <ANTO.L>, Eurasian
Natural Resources <ENRC.L>, Kazakhmys <KAZ.L>, Rio Tinto <RIO.L>
and Vedanta Resources <VED.L> shed 0.8 to 1.8 percent.
The sector was also pressured by comments made by the head of
Anglo American who said commodities growth in China, which has a
huge appetite for resources, may ease over the short-term,
though longer term the country's fundamentals were sound.
Energy stocks were mixed with oil prices <CLc1> slipping
below $66 a barrel as investors focused on the halting economic
recovery in the United States and shrugging off escalating
tensions between Iran and the West.
BP <BP.L> and Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> added 0.2 and 0.3
percent, respectively, while BG Group <BG.L>, Cairn Energy
<CNE.L> and Tullow Oil <TLW.L> shed 0.3 to 1.8 percent
BANKS MIXED
Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L> and Royal Bank of Scotland
<RBS.L> both slid around 1.9 percent, as investors fretted about
possible right issues from UK banks, traders said, after Nomura
<8604.T> announced a $5.6 billion share sale plan last week.
A broker downgrade also weighed on Royal Bank of Scotland
with ING cutting its recommendation on the stock to "sell" from
"hold".
Also, RBS will break up RBS Asset Management by selling the
majority of the 50 billion pounds ($79.94 billion) division as
part of a series of fund raising moves, the Daily Telegraph said
on Saturday.
Standard Chartered <STAN.L>, however, rose 1.6 percent,
helped by an RBS target price hike to 2,000 pence from 1,600.
HSBC <HSBA.L> and Barclays <BARC.L> rose 1.2 and 0.3 percent,
respectively.
Meanwhile, data showed the annual drop in house prices in
England and Wales eased to 5.6 percent in September from 6.7
percent in August, the slowest annual pace of decline since
August 2008, property data company Hometrack said.
[]
(Editing by Hans Peters)
