Drug firm mergers lift early FTSE prospects

The UK’s benchmark was up almost 15 points or 0.3% to 5072 within the first hour of trading while the FTSE All-Share index also earned 0.3% to 2541.70, leaving both indices again at their highest positions since May 2002. GlaxoSmithKline, Europe’s largest pharmaceutical firm gained 1.9% to £12.64p and AstraZeneca added 1.9% to £21.15, on the back of merger news in Europe and Asia of two separate groups of rival firms. In Europe, Switzerland’s Novartis AG has agreed to buy German generic drugmaker Hexal AG and some of its US affiliates, creating the world’s largest generic drugs manufa...