Shire leads FTSE losers

Shire Pharmaceuticals led the losers on the FTSE 100 at the end of morning trading in London on Friday as it fell 2.5 percent on mixed reaction to its announcement that it would acquire rival Trankaryotic Therapies. While Deutsche Bank analysts believe that the takeover could be an advantage for Shire, Credit Suisse First Boston downgraded it to “neutral” because TKT is currently in the loss column.

Other more positive news, including an overnight rally on Wall Street and several recent good first-quarter earnings reports sent the FTSE 100 higher by 0.4 percent to 4,840.6 at midday. The FTSE 250 was also up, by 0.5 percent to 7,005.9.

Hit Entertainment was also down on news that one potential buyer had dropped out of the competition to buy the children’s entertainment company. Hit’s shares declined by 2.2 percent. In the technology sector, Spirent, which continued to feel repercussions from its Thursday profit warning.

Spirent fell another 3.9 percent after an even larger loss on Thursday.

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