Glaxo and AZ are healthy options

DRUG stocks had plenty of colour in their cheeks. Fund managers prescribed them to those clients wishing to invest in blue chip companies which benefit from a stronger dollar and whose earnings and cash flow are little affected by a higher interest rate environment.

Tracker funds were also looking to rebuild their exposure to the health and pharmaceuticals sector following last week's removal of Amersham from the Footsie after its takeover by General Electric.

A meaty 54m GlaxoSmithKline changed hands and the close was 48p better at 1162p. Broker Deutsche Bank put GSK forward as its favourite lowrisk and liquid European play and pointed out that every 5 cents dollar/pound move is worth 2% to group earnings per share.

US broker Morgan Stanley sang the praises of rival AstraZeneca, 68p up at 2675p. It repeated its overweight stance and £32 price target, saying AZ continues to be one of its favoured names in the industry because of the potential upside to earnings forecasts from Crestor, its anti-cholesterol treatment, and Exanta, its anticoagulant drug.

After settling out of court a patent infringement case on one of its lead homocysteine products with Catch Incorporated of the US, biotech firm Axis-Shield rose 4 1/2p to 161p.

Wall Street's opening 52-point gain following impressive quarterly earnings figures from Citigroup, Texas Instruments and Apple Computer helped the Footsie to close 20.1 points better at

4505.5.

The Dow later turned off to trade 21 down as fears of higher US interest rates once again took hold. A positive report on manufacturing activity in the New York area helped to temper the impact of a rise in weekly jobless claims.

Sterling eased afresh against a resurgent dollar to $1.7835, while the euro improved to 66.9p and $1.1938.

Financial Times owner Pearson advanced 14p to 642p and Sir Martin Sorrell's advertising giant WPP rose 6p to 573 1/2p after the Numis media team advised clients to buy because the good results recently reported by US media groups augurs well.

The FT should soon start to experience a more positive advertising trend because the Wall Street Journal has seen a recovery in advertising lineage-Pearson should give a more upbeat assessment of the newspaper's prospects at the agm on April

30.

WPP will benefit as political spending ahead of the Presidential elections in November is starting to come through. The Olympic Games in Athens will also provide a spur and there is the prospect of 'Cola wars' developing as Pepsi/Coca Cola launch mid-calories drinks.

Former Footsie engineer Invensys jumped 2 1/4p to 20 1/2p following confirmation that trading is in line with expectations. The planned disposals of both Powerware and Hansen Transmissions are 'progressing well'.

Aim-quoted Petrel Resources, the oil and gas explorer, gushed 4 3/4p to 30 3/4p. It will soon submit tenders to develop three oil fields - Kirkuk, Hamrin and Subba - in Iraq.

Cambridge Mineral Resources

firmed 1 1/4p to 14p following positive drilling results from its Lomero-Poyatos polymetallic deposit in southern Spain.

Talk that it could be the next Cairn Energy had punters piling into Burren Energy, 17 1/2p higher at 249p. Cairn closed 5p off at 885p, but has rocketed from a January level of 375p after twice striking it lucky in the Indian Rajasthan desert.

Griffin Mining edged up 1/4p to 26 1/2p after a potential big seller walked away.

Peter Hambro Mining jumped 21 1/2p to 547 1/2p following good results.

Offered for sale at 110p, shares of support services group PKL closed 17 1/2p up at 127 1/2p.

IT'S not taken entrepreneur Bob Morton long to tie up a deal for former technology incubator London & Boston Investments since increasing his stake by 13% to 16.6% in February. The plan was to acquire profitable companies and the £2.975m cash purchase of Rochdale Development Company is in that category. Its subsidiary, Moore & Buckle (Flexible Packaging), last year made profits of £917,191 on turnover of £1.4m.