Pharmaceutical stocks lifted the London market after US drugs giant Pfizer pulled out of a mega-merger with Irish rival Allergan.
Pfizer and Allergan said they were terminating their 160 billion US dollar (£113 billion) deal by “mutual agreement”, days after the US Treasury unveiled new measures to curb tax avoidance, including so-called inversion deals.
The FTSE 100 Index was up 29.3 points to 6120.5 as Shire and AstraZeneca saw their stock prices climb on the news, rising 110p to 4159p and 112p to 4063p respectively.
Pfizer said it would pay Allergan 150 million US dollars (£106 million) to cover expenses run up during negotiations on the deal.
The tie-up would have been the largest inversion deal in corporate history, a tax-saving manoeuvre in which a US company reorganises in another country with a lower corporate tax rate.
Commodity stocks also rose amid fresh hopes that a cut to oil production was around the corner.
Antofagasta was up 5.9p to 438.6p and Royal Dutch Shell lifted 7p to 1662p after the Kuwaiti governor of the oil cartel Opec said an output freeze could be enforced following a meeting in Qatar on April 17.
Nawal Al-Fuzaia also said she expects a balance of supply and demand to be reached in the second half of this year, leading to higher oil prices.
The price of Brent crude was up 2.2% or 85 cents to 38.72 US dollars a barrel.
In Europe, Germany’s Dax was down 0.32%, while the Cac 40 in France was up 0.14%.
The pound was down more than half a per cent against the dollar at 1.41 as sterling continued to be hit by fears that Britain will vote to leave the European Union.
Sterling was also down 0.3% against the euro at 1.24.
In stocks, budget airline easyJet saw its shares come under fire after admitting it took a knock from strikes in France last week.
The low-cost carrier said the number of passengers it carried rose by 4.3% to 5.7 million in March, up from 5.5 million in the same month last year, but its load factor fell 1.3% to 91.3% after industrial action triggered a wave of flight cancellations.
Shares dropped 2.2% or 33p to 1490p, while British Airways-owner IAG also came under pressure following the news, falling 6.5p to 542.5p.
Mining giant Glencore took a hit after announcing it would sell a substantial stake in its agricultural business to a Canadian pension fund.
The sale to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will raise 2.5 billion US dollars (£1.8 billion) and will be used to drive down Glencore’s debt pile.
Shares were down 3% or 4.3p to 137.6p.
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