Stock Commentary - Europe - week to June 4, 2007

EUROPEAN: bourses gyrated in the seven days to June 4. FRANKFURT was the best performing market in Europe with the Xetra Dax rising 3.2%, boosted by a strong performance from little Evotec, which gained 5.2%, and drug major Bayer, up 3.9%. On May 31, Stada Arzneimittel jumped 1.5% after Deutsche Bank said that the current share price offered a good entry level to the company, which was up 5.6% on the week. However, SYGNIS dropped 6.9%. MILAN's MIBtel benchmark saw no change on last week although Fidia was the worst performing Italian drugmaker with a 4.6% decline. In AMSTERDAM, Dutch molecular diagnostics firm Qiagen NV lost 4.5% on June 5, after investors took a negative stance on its $1.6 billion takeover of USA-based Digene (see page 3), while the AEX market index rose 1.2%.

LONDON: share prices fluctuated in the reporting week, with a significant mid-point high on June 2 when the FTSE 100 rose to its highest level since September 2000. The index closed the week up 1.6%. The biggest riser was Elan which gained 3.2% on no particular news, as did vaccine maker Acambis, posting a 3.7% gain. GlaxoSmithKline's share price started the reporting period at a two-year low prompted by concerns over its diabetes drug Avandia (rosiglitazone; see page 14). Over the weeked the drug major slipped 1.4% after the US Food and Drug Administration declined to grant a prirority review for its cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix, and the firm fell another 1.4% at the start of the new week, June 4, after recurring worries over Avandia. The UK drug major was down 3.2% on the reporting period as a whole.