Market report: Thursday close

ONE of the biggest losers among the top 100 companies was

JAB Investments, vehicle of privately owned John A Benckiser, has sold 35m shares which were placed with various institutions by US securities house Morgan Stanley last night. It reduces the rest of the family's stake to 15.9% and will entitle them to nominate only one non-executive director on the RB board.

In February, shares of the household goods and personal healthcare specialist slumped to a low of 940p after the Reimann family, descendants of Johann Adam Benckiser, announced plans to raise £640m by reducing its 24.3% holding.

News of the disposal came just after RB's results and caught the City on the hop. As a result, Morgan Stanley was able to sell only £237m of shares - less than half the stake on offer.

The rest of the market continued to stretch its addvance of the past few days, supported by opening gains for the Dow on Wall Street this afternoon. The march on Baghdad helped to lift the FTSE 100 index up 17.7 at 3771.1 points.

Drugs giant AstraZeneca was another big Footsie faller, losing 75p to 2190p, as the bears won out in a two-way pull. It follows yesterday's update on its new treatment Exanta to prevent strokes. Broker UBS Warburg still rates the shares a buy and has raised its target price from 2500p to 2600p. But HSBC Securities has downgraded from buy to reduce with a 1950p target price, while Merrill Lynch and E*Trade have moved from buy to neutral.

They believe the shares are looking overvalued. Exanta is seen as the successor to the 49-year-old rat poison warfarin, which also prevents strokes in people suffering atrial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeat to you and me. Almost six million people suffer from AF in Europe and the US, including me.

Deutsche expects sales of Exanta to reach $630m (£402m) by 2006, or 3% of group sales, but there is concern over the impact of Exanta on the liver. Merrill says AZ shares are now at a 50% premium to the global drugs sector. Warburg has also raised Celltech, up 21 3/4p at 297 3/4p, from neutral to buy and repeated its 360p target price. The shares have been dull since it made a bid for Oxford Glycosciences, steady at 193 1/2p.

Housebuilder Wilson Connolly nudged up 3p to 172p on revived bid speculation. It is being linked with rival Persimmon, up 1 1/4p at 384 1/4p, among others. Pizza Express rose 10p to 389 1/2p after it received an agreed 387p a share rival bid from Nando's chicken restaurants consortium. That tops a bid from Pizza Express co-founder Luke Johnson worth 367p.

Bid target Thistle Hotels rose 1/2p to 118p after backtracking over comments suggesting institutions are resisting takeover offers below 140p a share. It has rejected an offer of 115p a share from its biggest shareholder, BIL International, valuing the business at £554m. It is talking to several white knights.

London Stock Exchange rose 3/4p to 288 1/4p despite Deutsche Börse raising e1bn (£687m) for acquisitions. Warburg has cut its target price from 360p to 325p and says the shares trade at an unjustified premium.

Prices and indices in this section are supplied from various sources and calculated at different times and may not always match those listed on the site.