Stock Commentary - Europe - week to Dec 8, 2008

EUROPEAN: bourses rebounded from their previous week's downturn in the reporting period to December 8, helped by the announcement of various economic stimulus packages and a rally on Wall Street. The last day saw particularly sharp gains for the leading markets, when bargain-hunters came to the fore. In FRANKFURT, where the Xetra Dax put on 7.3%, drug stocks were weak, with the largest increase, just 1.7%, being registered for Stada Arzneimittel, which benefited from an initial indication that it would do well in the tendering operation with the AOK health insurer. The two leading German drugmakers, Bayer and Merck KGaA, were barely changed, rising just 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively, although the former stock plunged more than 8% ahead of the weekend, on no apparent news. Actelion gained 7.8% on the ZURICH bourse, buoyed by recent expressions of confidence on its financial outlook. Drug majors Roche and Novartis underperformed the SMI's 5.4% advance, rising just 3.5% and 4.6%, respectively. Roche was up despite news of a likely delay in the US approval of its Actemra (tocilizumab; see page 18), while Novartis could perhaps have seen some more support given its presentation of strong data at the American Society of Hematology meeting (see pages 24-25).