Market report: Tuesday close

DRUG stocks led prices lower, with

Exanta has been rapidly replacing Warfarin as a way of reducing clots. But investment house Goldman Sachs said safety issues could lead to a prolonged review for the drug in the key US market, and forecast relatively modest sales. AZ, Europe's second-largest drugmaker, slid 101p to 2459p.

GlaxoSmithKline fell 37p to 1175p on concern about the lack of progress in preventing the advent of copycat drugs.

Elsewhere, the good weather is helping maintain the High Street boom. Retail sales growth in June doubled from the previous month, with the DIY side of Kingfisher doing particularly well, boosting its shares 6 1/4p to 284 1/4p.

Even the Pick'n'Mix counters at Woolworths are flourishing although it is bid speculation that is driving its price forward. Retailer Philip Green could be in the frame again, and the shares added 1/4p to 40 1/4p. WH Smith rose 9p to 409p and Ottakar's gained 7 1/2p to 289 1/2p.

The market reacted cautiously to comments from US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and the FTSE 100 index fell 25.1 points to 4102.5.

Renewed bid speculation was the hallmark of the housebuilding sector. McCarthy & Stone looked as though it was coming back into play as plans by its founder and nonexecutive chairman John McCarthy to take the group private were cast aside. It advanced 19p to 485p. Persimmon appears to be interested, and it fell 3 1/2p to 483p.

A row is brewing between financial information providers Bloomberg and Reuters over alleged patent infringements relating to Reuters' automated trading systems. Bloomberg says it is confident it has not infringed these.

Ahead of interim figures this time next week, Goldman Sachs turned positive about Reuters and raised its target to 245p from 235p. It is expecting a strong set of interim figures next Tuesday and Reuters gained 1/4p to 222 1/4p.

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.