Stock Commentary - Europe - week to May 28, 2007

EUROPEAN: bourses gyrated throughout the reporting period to May 28, but maintained the positive momentum of recent weeks with equities reaching a six and a half year high on May 25, recovering from a mid-week slide over concerns about a slowdown in the Chinese economy. In ZURICH, Actelion reversed the previous week's gain, underperforming the market with a 5.5% drop. The biggest movers on the FRANKFURT exchange were Merck KGaA, which gained 4.7% and tiny SYGNIS, up 5.3%, while Stada Arzneimittel lost 4.2%, versus a 1.6% gain for the Xetra Dax. Bayer closed down 1.6% on May 23 after the US FDA asked makers of MRI scan contrast agents to add a warning to their products (see page 18), and was down 1.5% on the week as a whole. There was little movement in MILAN with the MIBtel slipping 0.7%, although Fidia was a notable exception. Shares in the firm jumped 9.5% on no particular news. In PARIS, bioMerieux matched the 0.3% decline seen in the CAC 40, while Dutch pharmaceutical and chemicals firm DSM rose 2%.

LONDON: stocks followed a negative trend, as the FTSE 100 benchmark declined 1%, which was echoed by the pharmaceutical sector, with nine tracked stocks falling and three rising. Little XTL Bio gained 4.3%, while Elan rose 2.2% after the Food and Drug Administration said it would review Tysabri (natalizumab) for Crohn's disease. The biggest losers were GlaxoSmithKline, which fell 4% on the week, after its antidiabetic Avandia (rosiglitazone) was linked to heart attacks (Marketletter May 28), and Protherics, which fell 6.9% on the withdrawal of its European marketing application for Voraxaze (glucarpidase; see page 22).