AstraZeneca upgraded after Crestor ruling; Portugal Telecom shares up
By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares didn't see much of a recovery Wednesday following the previous session's rout, though AstraZeneca jumped after a patent ruling and Portugal Telecom rallied following an improved offer for its stake in a Brazilian mobile carrier.
The Stoxx Europe 600 (ST:SXXP 244.26, +0.44, +0.18%) traded up 0.1% at 244.12, after nursing a 3% slide on Tuesday on worries over growth in the U.S. and China as well as the health of European banks.
AstraZeneca (UK:AZN 3,257, +309.50, +10.50%) (AZN 48.74, +4.02, +8.99%) jumped 9.7% in London after a U.S. district court enforced a patent protecting Crestor, a cholesterol drug.
J.P. Morgan Cazenove upgraded the stock to neutral from underweight, which said the ruling raises the possibility of a significant share buyback program.
Elsewhere in the sector, shares of France's Sanofi-Aventis (FR:SAN 48.99, +0.31, +0.63%) (SNY 29.75, -0.80, -2.62%) rose 0.9% after it said it has agreed to acquire TargeGen Inc. a privately held U.S. biopharmaceutical company for as much as $560 million.
In other deal news, Portugal Telecom (PT:PTC 8.70, +0.40, +4.81%) (PT 10.03, -0.09, -0.89%) shares were up 5.5% after Spain's Telefonica (ES:TEF 15.19, +0.08, +0.50%) (TEF 55.19, -3.11, -5.33%) upped its offer for Portugal Telecom's 50% stake in Brasilcel to 7.15 billion euros late Tuesday.
This new offer will be submitted to shareholders at a general meeting on Wednesday, Portugal Telecom said. Telefonica shares were up 0.3%.
Of the major regional equity markets, the German DAX index (DX:DAX 5,975, +22.98, +0.39%) rose 0.1% to 5,958.34, the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,441, +8.34, +0.24%) traded flat at 3,432.96 and the U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 4,933, +18.54, +0.38%) rose 0.3% to 4,927.97.
U.S. stock futures were pointing to a bit of a rebound on Wednesday from sharp losses in the previous session. Asian shares were lower.
Financials managed to take back some ground on Wednesday ahead of a three-month tender auction at the European Central Bank with Deutsche Bank (DE:DBK 46.42, +0.38, +0.83%) shares up 1.1%. See full story.
