By Dominic Lau
LONDON, April 15 (Reuters) - The UK's FTSE 100 <> index
rose by midday on Tuesday, breaking a five-session losing run as
AstraZeneca <AZN.L> leapt on a patent settlement and oil shares
gained on record crude prices.
AstraZeneca jumped nearly 9 percent, on course for its
biggest one-day percentage gain since November 2002, after the
Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said it had settled U.S. patent
litigation against India's Ranbaxy Laboratories <RANB.BO> over
its top-selling drug, ulcer pill Nexium.
By 1023 GMT, the FTSE 100 <> was up 47.4 points at
5,879.0, having fallen 1.1 percent on Monday.
Oil shares also rose as crude prices <CLc1> surged to record
highs and after a large offshore Brazil find by BG Group <BG.L>
and its partners, Petrobras <PETR4.SA> and Repsol-YPF <REP.MC>,
which may be the world's biggest discovery in 30 years.
BG Group rose 5.7 percent, while Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L>
gained 1.2 percent and Cairn Energy <CNE.L> added 2.2 percent.
BP <BP.L> put on 0.5 percent after China had accumulated a
stake of just under 1 percent in the oil major.
Investors will be keen for further clues on the health of
the world's largest economy, with U.S. producer price index data
due at 1230 GMT.
A survey showed British like-for-like retail sales fell in
March for the first time in two years and at the sharpest pace
in nearly three years, in a sign consumers are feeling the
impact of the credit crunch.
"We are seeing a lot of impact on the real economy coming in
in the next six months, a lot of downgrades particularly in
economically sensitive areas, consumer services and industrial
particularly," said Roger Cursley, UK strategist at Investec.
"We think (earnings growth) forecasts have to come down
quite a bit. It'll be difficult for the market to make much
headway against that," said Cursley, who cut his year-end target
for the FTSE 100 to 6,250 from 7,000 on Monday.
Tesco <TSCO.L>, however, said it had made a strong start to
its new financial year after meeting forecasts with an 11
percent rise in annual profit. Tesco advanced 5.3 percent, while
Wm Morrison Supermarkets <MRW.L> added 1.4 percent and Sainsbury
<SBRY.L> gained 1.1 percent.
CARPHONE SLUMPS
Carphone Warehouse <CPW.L> slumped 12.5 percent after the
company released mixed results, gave a weaker 2009 outlook and
marginally revised down its 2008 full-year pretax profit.
Also on the economic front, the Royal Institute of Chartered
Surveyors reported the most widespread fall in UK house prices
in March in the 30-year history of the survey, while the
government said annual British house price inflation eased to a
19-month low of 6.7 percent in February from 8.0 in January.
Housebuilder Persimmon <PSN.L> dropped 2.9 percent, while
rivals Taylor Wimpey <TW.L> and Barratt Developments <BDEV.L>
both lost 3.6 percent.
Diversified healthcare company Johnson & Johnson's <JNJ.N>
first-quarter earnings will also provide a further gauge of the
impact of the credit crisis on corporate earnings later in the
day.
Miners were also in demand, with Eurasian National Resources
<ENRC.L> up 2.9 percent, Rio Tinto <RIO.L> gaining 2.2 percent
and BHP Billiton <BLT.L> adding 2.1 percent.
Banks were weaker, with Barclays <BARC.L>, Royal Bank of
Scotland <RBS.L>, HBOS <HBOS.L>, Lloyds TSB <LLOY.L> and
Alliance & Leicester <ALLL.L> down.
(Additional reporting by Michael Taylor; Editing by Paul
Bolding)
