Europe And London Stock Commentary

23 June 1996

EUROPEAN: share price indexes were nearly all decliners, with the exception of LONDON (see below). Two main concerns during the reporting period were elections in Russia and possible interest rate cuts in the USA. In the drug sector, prescription drug sales in Europe for the first two months of the year grew at 10-16%, according to IMS data, compared with just 6% in the USA. The sector has a number of positives at the moment but has been dull so far, partly due to the strong performance by the sector in 1995. Also, investors are currently moving into cyclical stocks, such as chemicals. In FRANKFURT, Bayer moved up on the hype around whether the firm is seeking a drugs merger partner (see page 2). Another climber was Altana (not tracked), which rose following a joint announcement by the company and its Swedish competitor Astra that they are ending their proton pump inhibitor patent infringement dispute (Marketletter June 17). Meantime in STOCKHOLM, Astra's share price declined on the news. In PARIS, chemical and pharmaceutical stock Rhone-Poulenc continued to rise, but other drug stocks were lackluster.

LONDON: equities were volatile during the reporting period, starting with rises but then yo-yoing for the rest of the week. However, there was enough upward momentum to keep the FT-SE 100 index above its close for the previous week. The pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors did a swap this week, with biotechnology stocks mostly falling and drug stocks climbing. Glaxo Wellcome was driven forward by a variety of factors. These included recommendations from brokers and excitement over the forthcoming AIDS conference in Vancouver, Canada, where GW will make an announcement about its anti-AIDS compound 1592, which is currently in Phase II development. Furthermore, rumors continue to ferment about GW merging with Pfizer of the USA. SmithKline Beecham also rose following a broker's recommendation based on Phase III results of the firm's treatment for Parkinsons's disease, ropinirole, released at a scientific meeting in Vienna.

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