Reuters: Hot Stocks: Britain's FTSE bounces off 10-week lows, led by Glaxo

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Britain's FTSE bounces off 10-week lows, led by Glaxo Apr 18th 2013, 11:14 Thu Apr 18, 2013 7:14am EDT * FTSE 100 rises 0.4 percent * Glaxo accounts for half of FTSE gains on drug approval * Tullow leads the energy sector higher * Miners remain weak, ENRC slides By Alistair Smout LONDON, April 18 (Reuters) - Britain's benchmark share index rose on Thursday as investors seized on 10-week lows as an opportunity to re-enter the market, with GlaxoSmithKline leading the index higher following the approval of a new drug. Heavyweight pharmaceutical Glaxo rose 4.2 percent to add the most points to the index after a U.S. panel recommended approval of new lung drug, prompting Deutsche Bank, Natixis and Kepler to raise their target prices for the stock. Glaxo contributed 13 points to gains on the FTSE 100 , half of the total 25.52 point rise. The index was up 0.4 percent at 6,269.73 points by 1040 GMT. The gains came after four straight sessions of losses on the FTSE 100, as worrying economic data from the United States and China and slumping commodity prices weighed on the market. It stabilised after falling 1 percent on Wednesday to its lowest close since early February - a level where some saw value in the market again. "The weaker data provided an excuse to take some profits in the last week, but there are still investors out there that appreciate the long-term outlook for the equity market looks very attractive indeed on a valuation and yield basis," Henk Potts, equity strategist at Barclays, said. "With a pullback, there's an opportunity to increase their exposure to the asset class." The gains were broad-based, with energy stocks also rising, led by Tullow Oil, which benefited from an upgrade to "buy" from "hold" by Societe Generale. Not all sectors exposed to the optimism over the economy saw gains, however, with miners dipping 0.4 percent to take their losses for the week so far to 7.5 percent. Eurasian was the top FTSE 100 faller, down 8.8 percent after the copper price weakened and a ban was imposed on exporting copper concentrate from the Democratic Republic of Congo. A Financial Times report meanwhile revived questions about the Kazakh miner's corporate governance. Miners have been falling all week after gold entered a bear market with biggest two-day sell-off since 1983, and trade in precious metals and copper remained volatile on Thursday. "The sell-off we've seen in the commodities sector is weighing on the miners ... they look oversold at the moment, but in the longer term, weakness in both commodities and miners could persist," Fawad Razaqzada, market strategist at GFT, said. Razaqzada added that, for the broader market, if recent support at 10-week lows was broken, this could be the trigger for further falls. "The market looks a little bit toppy at the moment, and if we break recent lows around 6,215, then I think we've got some room to the downside." (Editing by Catherine Evans) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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