Market report: Monday close

DRUGS giant

That was the charge levelled today by broker UBS, which is telling clients the consensus sales forecast for the cholesterol treatment is too high. The City expects Crestor to be one of the group's main driving forces for earnings growth over the next decade.

UBS reckons AZ is looking for Crestor sales to reach almost $1bn (£592m) next year, rising to almost double that by 2005 - about 20% above its own expectations. The risk of disappointment has prompted UBS to downgrade its rating on AstraZeneca from buy 1 to buy 2 because it sees a greater than 10% level of volatility around its price target of 3350p.

But the broker says it remains a big fan of AZ, arguing that Crestor could still beat market expectations over the longer term. It is also optimistic about prospects for the group's anticoagulant Exanta, used to prevent strokes in cases of atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeats).

Share prices generally fell sharply in the wake of Friday's setback for the Dow on Wall Street. Big losses today in the Far East and the terrorist attack in Turkey also dragged stocks down. The FTSE 100 index ended down 58.1 points at 4338.9.

HSBC fell 20p to 885p. US broker Smith Barney has repeated its sell rating after Friday's results from Household International, which the bank bought earlier this year.

Morgan Stanley has raised its copper price forecast by 12% and that of aluminium by 6%. Its sector pick is Rio Tinto, down 45p at 1403p, for which it recommends overweight, while it holds an equal weight rating on BHP Billiton, 10p off at 441 3/4p. Only Anglo-Swiss mining outfit Xstrata fails to live up to expectations with an underweight rating. It was 31p cheaper at 605p.

JJB Sports, down 15p at 288p, booked a small loss after drawing a line under its highly unpopular move into discount department stores. The sports retailer has sold TJ Hughes for £49m in cash, including a £2m dividend. It stopped short of announcing an immediate return of the proceeds to investors, saying it was actively evaluating options. The buyer is a management team led by George Foster and backed by PPM Ventures, Prudential's private equity arm.

Scottish Power, up 1 1/2p at 361 1/2p, wants to save £20m by terminating early several electricity supply contracts with Scottish & Southern Energy, up 15p at 637p. Majestic Wine slid 2 1/2p to 830p after reporting sales in the six months to 29 September, up from £56.8m £69m, making profits of £4.2m against £2.6m. The interim dividend jumps 50% to 4.5p. The wine warehouse chain saw like-for-like sales growth of 7.5%. Its shares have almost doubled in the past year.

Rejected Canary Wharf stalker Brascan continues to win support 252p cash offer for the Docklands developer. UBS, with almost 2% of the shares, says it will back the Canadian property firm. Last week, 6.8% shareholder Franklin Mutual Advisers said the same. Canary shed 4 1/4p to 244 3/4p.

BTG rallied 33p to 187p. It fell 60% on Friday after news the US Food and Drug Administration had suspended clinical trials of varicose veins treatment Varisolve.