By Dominic Lau
LONDON, April 15 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index rose
0.9 percent early on Tuesday, snapping out of a five-session
losing run as AstraZeneca <AZN.L> jumped on a patent settlement
and oil stocks gained on record crude prices and a major BG
Group <BG.L> find.
AstraZeneca leapt 8.3 percent after the Anglo-Swedish
drugmaker said it had settled U.S. patent litigation against
India's Ranbaxy Laboratories <RANB.BO> over its top-selling
drug, ulcer pill Nexium.
By 0727 GMT, the FTSE 100 <.FTSE> was up 52.2 points at
5,883.8, having fallen 1.1 percent on Monday, while European
shares were also up in early session trade.
Oil shares were also in demand as crude prices <CLc1> surged
to record highs and after a large offshore Brazil find by BG
Group and its partners, Petrobras <PETR4.SA> and Repsol-YPF
<REP.MC>, which may be the world's biggest discovery in 30
years.
BG Group climbed 5.3 percent, while Royal Dutch Shell
<RDSa.L> added 1.3 percent and Cairn Energy <CNE.L> put on 1.6
percent.
BP <BP.L> gained 1.1 percent after UK newspapers said China
had accumulated a stake of just under 1 perecnt in the oil
major.
"Enjoy the rally while it's here," said David Buik of Cantor
Index. "We are going to see some very volatile conditions for
some time to come."
"The huffing and puffing taking place at Downing Street will
be meaningless unless such time as we see some serious liquidity
pump into the interbank market," Buik said, referring to the
meeting between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and top
retail and investment bank executives on Tuesday.
Investors will be keen for further clues on the health of
the UK and the U.S. economies, with the UK's consumer price data
due at 0830 GMT and the U.S. producer price index due at 1230
GMT.
A survey showed British like-for-like retail sales fell in
March for the first time in two years and at the sharpest pace
in nearly three years, in a sign consumers are feeling the
impact of the credit crunch.
Tesco <TSCO.L>, however, said it had made a strong start to
its new financial year after meeting forecasts with an 11
percent rise in annual profit. The world's third-biggest
retailer climbed 4.2 percent. Debenhams <DEB.L> added 4.8 percent after the British
department stores group reported a 12.4 percent fall in
first-half profit that was ahead of consensus but said that the
outlook remained challenging.
Carphone Warehouse <CPW.L> dived more than 10 percent after
the company released mixed results, gave a weaker 2009 outlook
and marginally revised down its 2008 full-year pretax profit.
Also on the economic front, the Royal Institute of Chartered
Surveyors said the UK house price balance fell in March to its
lowest in the 30-year history of the survey.
Diversified healthcare company Johnson & Johnson's <JNJ.N>
first-quarter earnings will also provide a further gauge of the
impact of the credit crisis on corporate earnings.
Banks were mostly weaker, with Royal Bank of Scotland
<RBS.L>, HBOS <HBOS.L>, Lloyds TSB <LLOY.L> and Alliance &
Leicester <ALLL.L> down between 0.4 and 1 percent. But HSBC
<HSBA.L> gained 0.7 percent and Standard Chartered <STAN.L>
added 0.4 percent.
Among mid-caps, Burberry <BRBY.L> rose 9.5 percent the
British fashion house forecasts solid growth in wholesale
revenues for the six months to Sept. 2008, driven by its
expansion in North America and emerging markets.
(([email protected]; +44 20 7542 5440; Reuters Messaging:
[email protected]; Editing by Andrew Hurst))