London open: Stocks give up gains ahead of US jobs report

2nd Sep 2011 08:26

Stocks have given up some of their recent gains amid nervousness ahead of this afternoon's big US jobs report.Among the fallers is drugs behemoth AstraZeneca, which has announced generally favourable results of tests of its cholesterol treatment, CRESTOR, though not the knock-out blow versus LIPITOR, the rival treatment from Pfizer, that it might have been hoping for. The study measures changes in plaque levels in coronary arteries using ultrasound imaging. The results for the primary efficacy measure demonstrated a numerically greater reduction in favour of CRESTOR versus atorvastatin but did not reach statistical significance. For the secondary IVUS measure, CRESTOR demonstrated a statistically significant reduction compared with atorvastatin. Global technology business Smiths Group is to purchase Power Holdings, a designer and manufacturer of specialist power distribution, conditioning and monitoring systems. The purchase price of $235m will be subject to post closing adjustments with respect to working capital at completion. Ukrainian iron ore pellet producer Ferrexpo has secured a new credit facility of $420m at a rate two and a quarter points above the London interbank offer rate (LIBOR). The credit facility can be drawn at any time during the loan term which has a maturity of five years including amortization over two years. London Stock Exchange Group has confirmed it is in discussions with LCH.Clearnet Group regarding a potential takeover of the Anglo-French clearing house.Catering giant Compass has been on the acquisition trail again, this time gobbling up a new company in its home market rather than the more exotic countries it has been expanding in lately. It has acquired Cygnet Foods, a provider of lunches to more than 450 schools in England. In 2010, Cygnet had revenues of £9.3m and gross assets of £2.2m. FTSE 100 - RisersInmarsat (ISAT) 486.00p +1.12%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,405.00p +0.16%Capital Shopping Centres Group (CSCG) 333.50p 0.00%Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 2,524.00p -0.04%Hammerson (HMSO) 408.80p -0.05%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,458.00p -0.07%British Land Co (BLND) 530.50p -0.09%Compass Group (CPG) 551.50p -0.09%Land Securities Group (LAND) 741.50p -0.13%United Utilities Group (UU.) 596.00p -0.17%FTSE 100 - Fallers3i Group (III) 205.50p -3.02%AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,837.00p -2.71%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 25.55p -2.67%Glencore International (GLEN) 407.15p -2.65%Barclays (BARC) 175.85p -2.50%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,050.00p -2.42%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 496.50p -2.36%ARM Holdings (ARM) 553.50p -2.21%GKN (GKN) 196.30p -2.19%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 34.90p -2.14%FTSE 250 - RisersSpirit Pub Company (SPRT) 43.99p +7.29%Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) 548.00p +2.91%ITE Group (ITE) 172.70p +1.53%JKX Oil & Gas (JKX) 180.00p +1.41%Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 2,461.00p +1.28%F&C Commercial Property Trust Ltd. (FCPT) 101.20p +1.00%Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 207.20p +0.97%Hansteen Holdings (HSTN) 77.85p +0.91%Grainger (GRI) 104.90p +0.87%Unite Group (UTG) 185.80p +0.81%FTSE 250 - FallersDixons Retail (DXNS) 11.85p -3.74%QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 121.40p -3.73%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 236.00p -3.67%Carpetright (CPR) 518.00p -3.63%Cookson Group (CKSN) 509.50p -3.32%Kesa Electricals (KESA) 105.00p -3.14%Barratt Developments (BDEV) 83.20p -3.09%Computacenter (CCC) 389.90p -2.94%Ashtead Group (AHT) 114.00p -2.90%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 119.60p -2.69%