Market report: Traders bet on the bookies

Still, while the bookies were a talking-point, it was AstraZeneca that was the focus of the day, with its shares surging 586½p, or 14.4pc, to £46.66½ after Pfizer stepped up is pursuit of the drugmaker. The US giant confirmed it had made a £46.61 a share approach in January, and the experts at Deutsche Bank reckoned Pfizer would now need to pitch its offer at £50-55 per share for the British company to start negotiations. Continuing bid speculation lifted fellow drugmaker Shire 76p to £32.86.

The jump experienced by Astra, a major constituent of the FTSE 100, lent support to the benchmark index and offset investor unease about the Ukraine crisis. With the US announcing new sanctions on Russia, nervousness about the deteriorating relationship between Moscow and the West saw the FTSE 100 give up some of its gains and close up 14.47 at 6,700.16, having reached as high as 6720.33 in intraday trade.

BG Group slumped as much as 6.8pc after announcing the surprise exit of boss Chris Finlayson and warning that production would be at the low end of estimates because of difficulties in Egypt. However, as the session wore on, speculation that the oil and gas group was vulnerable to predator, such as Exxon Mobil, helped the shares regain some ground and BG closed 1p higher at £11.46.

Ophir Energy slid 1.9 to 241.4p after confirming that fellow explorer Premier Oil, 2.7 higher at 329.4p, had rejected a merger proposal. Analysts at Liberum told clients that “the approach perhaps signals that Ophir is struggling for organic options in its portfolio”. Dragan Trajkov at Oriel Securities suggested that Ophir could deploy its $1.5bn cash pile on other bid targets. Traders thought the same and chased EnQuest 4.2 higher to 135.3p.

Among the smaller companies, news of a tie-up lifted Gulfsands Petroleum 1½ to 62½p. The oil and gas explorer announced it had agreed a deal for a 75pc interest in the Moulay Bouchta permit in Morocco, which covers three light oil fields.

Analysts were responsible for moving other shares. A push from Deutsche’s insurance expert, Oliver Steel, helped Resolution advance 3½ to 297.9p. Like other life insurers, Resolution has been hit by the annuities shake-up revealed in the Budget, as well as the capping of pension fees and a regulatory review into the sector. But the shares are oversold, Mr Steel told clients.

If the group offloads its Lombard wealth management business it could have more than £900m of cash, which it could either return to shareholders via a share buy back or use to make bolt-on acquisitions. With those possibilities in mind, Mr Steel raised his recommendation on Resolution shares to “buy”. The same went for British Land, up 8 at 689p following an “overweight” recommendation at JPMorgan Cazenove.

Finally, set-top box maker Pace lost 29.8, or 7.5pc, to 370.1p, a fall that left some brokers scratching their heads. Analysts suggested that a Sunday Telegraph report, about a technology overhaul at BSkyB that will see programmes recorded in “the cloud” rather than on set-top box hard disks, was dragging on the shares.

Quindell drops despite share purchases

Stock purchases by board directors of Quindell failed to stop the troubled outsourcer’s share price from falling.

The Aim-listed group, which last week came under attack from US short-seller Gotham City Research, slid 4½, or 18.4pc, to 20p despite a show of support from Rob Terry, its founder and executive chairman, and two others.

Quindell disclosed last Friday, when it issued a 12,500 word rebuttal of Gotham’s allegations, that directors would buy shares, and buy they did.

Mr Terry spent £95,000 on 500,000 shares at 19p apiece, while Tony Bowers, vice chairman, bought 131,579 shares at the same price.

Director Robert Burrow also acquired 150,000 shares at 19.9p each.

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