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Wall Street moves higher as Valeant Pharma offers to buy Botox maker

Published: 10:26 22 Apr 2014 EDT

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US shares were on the up Tuesday with pharmaceutical stocks under the spotlight.

Among several corporate stories, a major one is the offer from Valeant Pharmaceuticals to buy Allergan - the maker of Botox wrinkle treatment.

The bid is a cash-and-stock deal valued at $45.7 billion and, if it goes ahead, would create a massive player in the global eye-care and skin-care industry.

Allergen shares were up nearly 15% in New York at the time of writing, while Valeant has gained 5.16%.

In other news, drugs firm AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) was also courting headlines and its US shars were moving upwards as speculation mounted that the giant US company Pfizer - the maker of Viagra -  could make a takeover bid.

GlaxoSmithKline (LON: GSK) told investors it was to join forces with Swiss giant Novartis in consumer health care.

Glaxo shareholders are set to benefit from a £4bn capital return funded by proceeds from the deal, where Glaxo will sell its cancer drug business to Novartis for $16bn and buy Novartis's vaccine business for an initial $5.25bn. Novartis is also selling its animal-health unit to Lilly for US$5.4bn.

To football news and Manchester United shares in New York were up slightly - around half a percent - after plunging yesterday as rumours of a possible sacking of the manager proved to be true on Tuesday.

David Moyes has now been sacked 10 months after succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson.

On Wall Street, the benchmark Dow is up 67 points at 16,515, while the Nasdaq gained 32 points at 4,154 and the S&P 500 added seven to 1,879.

In the UK, FTSE 100 continued its steady climb - up over 75 to 6,700 - breaching the pyschologically significant level.

Bullabulling (LON:BGL) gained as it rejected the approach from rival Aussie gold miner Norton Gold Fields.

It said it was inadequate and not justifying a change in control.

Norton is offering 7 cents cash per share, which the Bullabulling board said does not adequately reflect either the company's value or the value of its gold project.

It added it was only advised of the intentions of Norton late Thursday April 17.

A formal statement explaining its reasons is being prepared and in the meantime the Bullabulling board is still advising shareholders to take no action.

Sticking to mining, Shanta Gold (LON:SHG) today posted an underlying profit as production at its New Luika mine in Tanzania picked up sharply in the second half.

Shares edged up slightly higher on the news.

Revenues in 2013 came in at US$66mln, excluding US$22mln of pre-production income, which generated profits US$0.7mln, stripping out one-offs and share-based payments.

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