Market report: Thursday close

DIRECTORS of drugs giant

AZ responded with a leap of 90p, or 3.67%, to 2545p, making it the second-best performer among the top 100 Footsie companies. The FDA's advisory panel looked at dosage levels after concerns were expressed that those of up to 40mg of the cholesterol treatment could lead to kidney damage. The FDA has recommended approval of the drug from 5mg up to the contentious 40mg level. Brokers estimate that global sales of Crestor will top more than £2.7bn a year by 2007, but less than 3% of patients who take the drug will be prescribed the higher dosage.

US securities house Morgan Stanley is happy with the outcome and retains its overweight stance on the shares while repeating its 2900p fair value price. Merrill Lynch is forecasting 3000p for the year-end while rival UBS is reviewing its neutral rating and 2800p target. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein has repeated its sell advice.

Meanwhile, rivals GlaxoSmithKline and Swiss-based Novartis have reached agreement over the sale of a copycat version of GSK's antibiotic drug Augmentin, that will see the two companies share royalties from July 2002 to July 2006.

The agreement is likely to result in 'tens of millions of extra dollars in income' for GSK, said an analyst. Still, its shares slipped 21p to 1186p.

The rest of the market drifted lower in thin trading despite a surprise quarter-point cut in interest rates to a 48-year low 3.5%. The FTSE 100 index ended down 25.9 to 4028.8 as Wall Street opened sharply lower this afternoon on the back of some poor economic news.

Housebuilders enjoyed a slight spurt with Barratt Developments up 3p at 461p, George Wimpey 1 3/4p higher at 313 3/4p and Berkeley 1p better at 797 1/2p.

Vodafone retreated 2 1/2p to 117 1/2p. US investment bank JP Morgan has downgraded to underweight and cut its target price to 123p. It says the shares look dear compared with the rest of the sector.

First-time dealings in Yellow Pages publisher Yell got off to a flyer, opening at 306p on a when-issued basis compared with the offer price of 285p. It later settled to finish at 289 1/2p, with 250m shares changing hands. The company's financial advisers, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, chose to offer the shares exclusively to institutional investors which meant that Sid, the private investor, again lost out.

Because the shares are trading on a when-issued basis, Sid cannot even buy them for his Isa until 15 July. At these levels, Yell commands a price tag of more than £2bn, which will catapult it into the Footsie 100 at September's quarterly reshuffle.

Vague bid talk lifted fashion retailer New Look 6p to 283 1/2p but Deutsche Bank has downgraded from buy to hold following its strong run. The world's biggest plumbing group, Wolseley, took a £20m currency hit in its US market due to the weak dollar. The shares tumbled 10 3/4p to 689 1/2p.

Plastics and floorings group Low & Bonar reported like-for-like profit growth at the interim stage for the first time in five years and rose 3 1/2p to 74 1/2p. Chief executive Paul Forman has a 100p target price, at which point he collects a bonus.

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