Drugs giant AstraZeneca rose strongly in today's session on reports investor Neil Woodford has selected the group "as the single biggest investment for his new fund", according to The Daily Telegraph, which said 8.2% of the £1.6bn fund had been put towards the group.

Engineering group Weir was a high riser after analysts at Citigroup upgraded the stock to 'buy', hiking their target price for the shares from 2,600p to 3,100p. The bank said that Weir's opportunities in oil and gas are "underappreciated" by the market.

Tullow Oil led the oil and gas sector south. Faroe Petroleum announced that the Butch South West exploration well has no hydrocarbons. Tullow has a 15% stake in the project.

Anglo American was one of a number of miners seen lower today. The group this morning announced planing to offload its 50% stake in UK aggregates joint venture (JV) with French group Lafarge, just a year and a half after it was formed.

Gold miner Polymetal was also being weighed down by comments from Credit Suisse which kept an 'underperform' rating on the stock, saying that the company's recent acquisition of the Kyzyl gold project in Kazakhstan hasn't changed its cautious view. The investment case is "primarily driven by our negative gold price outlook", the bank said.

Drinks giant SABMiller edged lower after announcing the disposal of its near-40% interest in South African hotel and entertainment group Tsogo Sun Holdings, valued at ZAR11.7bn ($1.09bn).


FTSE 100 - Risers
AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,458.50p +0.93%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,236.00p +0.90%
Weir Group (WEIR) 2,738.00p +0.85%
G4S (GFS) 264.10p +0.76%
Friends Life Group Limited (FLG) 319.40p +0.63%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,040.00p +0.48%
Royal Mail (RMG) 478.50p +0.38%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,650.00p +0.32%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,010.00p +0.28%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 5,135.00p +0.20%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Tullow Oil (TLW) 819.00p -2.96%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 179.20p -2.56%
Kingfisher (KGF) 353.00p -2.41%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,331.00p -2.20%
TUI Travel (TT.) 389.00p -2.09%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,431.00p -1.85%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 361.00p -1.80%
Hammerson (HMSO) 573.00p -1.80%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 375.30p -1.68%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,023.00p -1.63%

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Related share prices
AstraZeneca (AZN) share price
Weir Group (WEIR) share price
Tullow Oil (TLW) share price
Polymetal International (POLY) share price