LONDON (ShareCast) - Worldwide Healthcare Trust and Hikma Pharmaceuticals tracked their FTSE 100 peers higher after AstraZeneca gained strongly on the back of takeover speculation, Shire rose following broker comment, and GSK also jumped after announcing a massive three-part deal with Swiss pharmaceuticals peer Novartis.

Shares in mining behemoth Vedanta Resources climbed after it announced the mining ban in the state of Goa had been lifted. It has, however, imposed a temporary restriction on the maximum annual excavation from the mining leases in Goa of 20m tonnes. This is subject to determination of final capacity by an expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, telecoms provider Colt fell sharply after it said margin pressures chipped away at quarterly earnings as it warned full-year earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) before restructuring charges are expected to range between 5% and 10% below current consensus estimates.

Defence technology group QinetiQ was lower despite saying it had agreed to sell its US services arm and return the bulk of cash to shareholders. With a cash consideration of $165m (£100m) to be paid, plus a potential earn-out of up to $50m, the company said it intends to return much of the value via a £150m share buyback.


FTSE 250 - Risers
Ocado Group (OCDO) 373.20p +6.57%
Worldwide Healthcare Trust (WWH) 1,280.00p +5.35%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,574.00p +5.21%
Xaar (XAR) 894.50p +4.50%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 1,809.00p +4.27%
BTG (BTG) 552.00p +4.25%
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 185.30p +4.16%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 449.40p +4.08%
Genus (GNS) 1,039.00p +4.00%
Heritage Oil (HOIL) 266.80p +3.98%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
COLT Group SA (COLT) 128.20p -11.40%
African Barrick Gold (ABG) 251.50p -2.93%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 52.90p -1.58%
PayPoint (PAY) 1,164.00p -1.36%
QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 218.70p -1.31%
Computacenter (CCC) 643.50p -1.00%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 370.00p -0.78%
Soco International (SIA) 416.90p -0.74%
Senior (SNR) 297.70p -0.73%
Grafton Group Units (GFTU) 635.50p -0.70%

NR

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