Market report: Wednesday close

A SINGLE line of stock in Anglo-Swedish drugs giant

Broker UBS did the business, placing 21.2m shares with various institutions at 2612p in only 22 minutes. That is a discount of 42p on last night's closing price of 2654p. As you would expect, AstraZeneca responded to the news with a fall of 60p to 2594p.

Swedish investment group Investor AB was the seller and has reduced its holding to 70.34m shares, or 4.15% of the company, worth about £1.8bn. It says it has no plans to sell any more. AstraZeneca shares have come up from a low of 1827p in the past year.

Share prices generally lost ground as investors proved hesitant ahead of US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan's testimony to Congress on the state of the American economy tonight. In London, investor attention remained focused on second-liners at the expense of blue-chips.

The FTSE-100 index closed 8.9 points down at 4396.8.

News of a hostile £36.5bn takeover approach for Walt Disney by America's largest cable TV operator, Comcast, set speculators' pulses racing. Newly merged ITV up 4 1/4p at 140 1/4p, is still seen as a likely target for another US giant, Viacom.

Takeover speculation about Manchester United, up 4 1/4p at 265 1/4p, has intensified after Irish businessmen John Magnier and JP McManus bought a further eight million shares, or 3%, at 260p, taking their stake up to 28.89%. Two lines totalling five million shares later went through at 265p.

If Magnier and McManus take their holding above 30%, this would automatically trigger a full bid. Other stakeholders in the Premiership club include TV producer Jon de Mol and Malcolm Glazer, owner of American Football team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Arla Foods jumped 6 1/4p to a new three-year high of 58 1/2p and has now risen from 48p since the start of the month. A consortium of farmers that supplies Arla with milk has 12m to spend and wants to buy a stake. That would give it about 21m shares or 3.5% of the company.

Arla is also poised to announce some big property sales later this year. Broker Oriel Securities says the shares look cheap.

BP slipped 1 1/2p to 414 1/2p after resuming its buyback programme with the purchase of 7.7m shares at prices ranging from 413 1/4p to 414 3/4p.

The shares were hit hard yesterday by a slowdown in fourth-quarter profits. Oriel Securities reckons BP still has a lot going for it and has raised the shares from hold to buy. It is forecasting an average oil price for Brent crude of $26 a barrel this year.

Enodis retreated 3 1/4p to 91p, making it one of the biggest losers among smaller-cap companies. Deutsche Bank has downgraded the food and catering equipment manufacturer from buy to hold in the wake of firstquarter numbers yesterday. It has also cut its price target from 100p to 90p.

There have been some big buyers sniffing round financial website ADVFN, up 0.68p at 5.925p on turnover of 14m shares. Medical equipment supplier Whatman marked time at 185p as broker UBS repeated its buy recommendation and lifted its 12-month target price from 200p to 225p.