FTSE 100 movers: Shire and Wolseley rally, RSA Insurance plummets as Zurich deal called off

LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - The FTSE 100 was up 0.74% with the index of leading shares up 45.26 points to 6,149.37.

Wolseley led the market on Monday after Credit Suisse added the stock to its European and Global Focus Lists and raised its price target to 4,900p from 4,400p. It said Wolseley has delivered a very impressive operational performance in its US division in recent years in terms of margin expansion and market share growth, and as a result the stock price performance has been noteworthy, with consistent outperformance versus sector and index over the last three years.

Also leading trading was Shire following news the pharmaceutical company's Intuniv drug has been awarded European approval for use as a non-stimulant drug for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents for whom stimulants are not suitable.

On top of that, it also benefited from an upgrade to 'overweight' from 'equalweight' by Barclays, which lifted its price target on the stock to 5,700p from 5,564p following the recent selloff.

However, what comes up must go down and RSA Insurance Group certainly did go down on Monday, dropping by over £1 per share. It's on the back of news that Zurich Insurance terminated discussions with the London-listed company regarding a possible £5.6bn offer due to the recent deterioration in the trading performance of its general insurance business.

Shore Capital said it remains to be seen whether the recent focus on RSA flushes out other corporate interest.

"Whilst we would not rule this out, we suspect it may take some time. As a result, we downgrade our recommendation from 'buy' to 'hold' for the time being." FTSE 100 - Risers Wolseley (WOS) 4,249.00p +2.73% Shire Plc (SHP) 4,872.00p +2.68% London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 2,456.00p +2.68% 3i Group (III) 478.80p +2.57% Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,231.00p +2.50% Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 160.30p +2.36% Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 74.30p +2.19% St James's Place (STJ) 891.50p +2.18% Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,168.00p +2.10% Inmarsat (ISAT) 1,009.00p +2.07% FTSE 100 - Fallers RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 405.60p -20.39% Standard Chartered (STAN) 698.80p -3.31% Glencore (GLEN) 122.00p -3.17% Anglo American (AAL) 708.00p -1.67% Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 327.80p -1.03% Antofagasta (ANTO) 574.50p -0.86% Ashtead Group (AHT) 973.50p -0.76% Fresnillo (FRES) 606.50p -0.57% Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,532.00p -0.55% BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,092.00p -0.55%