By Callum Keown
Reuters
London markets made slight gains on Thursday as FTSE 100 miners rebounded and pharma giant AstraZeneca posted strong results.
The FTSE 100 /zigman2/quotes/210598409/delayed UK:UKX +0.47% edged up 0.1%, while the FTSE 250 /zigman2/quotes/210598417/delayed UK:MCX +0.46% also climbed 0.3%.
What’s moving the markets?
Mining giants, which dragged the FTSE 100 down on Wednesday off the back of falling iron ore prices, rebounded to lift the blue-chip index.
Evraz /zigman2/quotes/202291633/delayed UK:EVR -12.59% led the risers, while Fresnillo /zigman2/quotes/201300065/delayed UK:FRES -0.08% , Anglo American /zigman2/quotes/201381512/delayed UK:AAL -1.46% and Glencore /zigman2/quotes/201400686/delayed UK:GLEN -0.46% all made gains of more than 1%.
The pharmaceutical sector also drove gains after drugmaker AstraZeneca /zigman2/quotes/203048482/delayed UK:AZN +1.96% raised sales forecasts for the year after strong sales from its top-selling lung cancer drug as well as success in China.
GlaxoSmithKline /zigman2/quotes/200381158/delayed UK:GSK +3.57% continued to rise after reporting a 5% revenue rise on Wednesday led by its shingles vaccine.
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said: “Pharmaceutical firms and miners gave the index the biggest support, led by a very strong showing from AstraZeneca which has lifted its sales guidance.”
The pound /zigman2/quotes/210561263/realtime/sampled GBPUSD +0.0330% , which had rallied on Wednesday as Boris Johnson took charge as prime minister and played down the possibility of a no-deal Brexit, remained stable at $1.247.
Which stocks are active?
British engineering company Cobham soared 35% after agreeing to a £4bn takeover by U.S. private equity firm Advent. The U.K. defence supplier’s shareholders will receive 165p per share in cash, a 34% premium to the closing price on Wednesday.
AstraZeneca shares jumped 5.5% as the British drugmaker raised its sales forecast for the year. Revenue from its best-selling lung cancer drug Tagrisso almost doubled to $784 million in the first half of 2019.
The U.K.’s largest listed tech firm Sage /zigman2/quotes/204528931/delayed UK:SGE -0.81% plunged 12.2% after reporting a fall in software revenue in the nine months to the end of June. The company also warned that its full-year operating profit margin would be at the lower end of its 23-25% guidance.
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