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Most followed: AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Gasol, Tower Resources, Manchester United

Published: 05:41 22 Apr 2014 EDT

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The market has gone pharmaceutical crazy with big beasts of the sector dominating the headlines.

Following reports on Sunday of a £60bn takeover bid for AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) from America’s Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK) unveiled a trio of deals with Novartis.

Glaxo’s Swiss rival has agreed to buy its oncology products for US$14.5bn, while selling its vaccines business, excluding flu, in the other direction for US$7.1bn plus royalties.

Another big beast in the news is Barclays (LON:BARC), where rumours abound that it will pull out of commodities markets.

The New York Times got the scoop – if it is one – on the British bank’s plans to disband or sell off its metals, energy, and agricultural businesses, though the US paper claims that the bank will continue to deal in precious metals.

Among the small caps, there have been mouse clicks aplenty on the Tower Resources (LON:TRP) story about the Welwitschia-1 prospect offshore Namibia, which is expected to spud by Friday.

Around 28mln Tower shares had changed hands by 10.30.

Likewise, readers have been perusing the Gasol (LON:GAS) announcement about a joint venture (JV) in Ghana, even though the JV does not involve Gasol. It does, however, involve African Power Generation (AfGen), which is the company Gasol has the right to acquire from African Gas Development.

AfGen has formalised a previous agreement with Ghana National Gas that will see the pair set up regasification facilities to supply regasified LNG to power plants and other gas users in Ghana, independent of the West African Gas Pipeline.

The JV will eventually be responsible for the sale and marketing in Ghana of regasified LNG from Gasol's LNG import project in Benin via the West African Gas Pipeline.

On the trading screens it is no surprise that Astra and Glaxo are seeing the most business, followed by Vodafone, with another pharma stock, Shire, slotting in to fifth place.

The busiest message boards are, as usual, all devoted to resource companies, with the exception of Barclays and, in a different arena, Manchester United.

The football club, renowned around the world but especially in Surrey, has given the old heave-ho to manager David Moyes just 10 months after acting on the previous manager’s recommendation to put him in the hot seat.

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