-- rose after recent stake-buying and merger speculation throughout the European food sector. Private-equity firms have said they may make an offer for Sainsbury; legendary investor Warren Buffett has a 2.9% stake in Tesco, and two investors bought up nearly 10% of France's Carrefour earlier this week.
Morrison, which also announced that it named Martyn Jones as trading director, in charge of trading and supply-chain operations, saw its shares rise 4.2%. was off lows of the day, edging 1% lower.
Goldman cut Europe's top drugmaker to sell from neutral, adding for good measure that the company is its least favored in the sector. The broker cited a litany of troubles: the loss of U.S.
patent protection on four products through 2007; continued U.S. prescription weakness for asthma inhaler Advair and diabetes medication Avandia; a "slowly evolving" pipeline of new drugs; currency headwinds this year; and a growth profile that's less attractive than a number of peers.
Outside the FTSE 100, shares of insurer Catlin Group ( : climbed 6.1% after saying that its acquisition of Wellington will now lift earnings this year, as opposed to keeping them neutral. Its 2006 results were in line with analyst expectations.
, a medical-products maker, dropped 1.4% to 440 pence after Credit Suisse downgraded it to neutral from outperform, saying it trades close to its target of 448 pence. "While we continue to like Gyrus as a long-term investment and believe in the company's bright growth prospects, we think the stock is now anticipating most growth prospects for 2007," the broker said.
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