Stocks were higher in Europe on Wednesday morning after the US and Japan announced the agreement of a trade deal, separately pharma firm Shield Therapeutics shot up as it reported a revenue surge. The FTSE 100 index opened up 40.07 points, 0.4%, at 9,063.88. The FTSE 250 was up 84.07 points, 0.4%, at 22,018.33, and the AIM All-Share was up 2.56 points, 0.3%, at 772.70. The Cboe UK 100 was up...

- Raises $10 million via shareholder loan agreement- More funding needed to achieve US roll-out- Good progress on commercializing AccuferIron deficiency-focused pharma company Shield Therapeutics (STX:AIM) said it will raise $10 million (£8.2 million) through a loan agreement with its second largest shareholder AOP Orphan International AG, which is expected to extend its cash runway until the...

Commercial-stage pharmaceutical company focused on treating iron deficiency Shield Therapeutics (STX:AIM) said its lead product Accrufer had been submitted for regulatory review in Canada.If approved the drug would become the first prescription-only iron oral therapy approved by Health Canada with marketing expected to begin in 2023. Investors welcomed the submission, marking the shares up...

Shares in specialty pharmaceutical company Shield Therapeutics (STX:AIM) slid 12% to 28.5p on Thursday despite a positive update on the development of its lead drug Accrufer, an oral iron replacement therapy which it launched into the US in July 2021.The shares have been volatile in recent months reflecting uncertainty around the commercial success of Accrufer. Given less than five months have...

The FTSE 100 closed Wednesday's session with a modest gain, edging 0.16% higher to 7,516.87 points on ongoing optimism over the impact of the less severe Omicron strain and support from a solid ADP private sector payrolls report across the pond, which prepared investors for a decent non-farm payrolls print on Friday.Blue chip miners Rio Tinto (RIO) and BHP (BHP), banks Lloyds (LLOY) and...

By midday on Wednesday, London's FTSE 100 had shaken off its earlier losses and resumed the upwards momentum it displayed on its first trading day of 2022, as broker upgrades helped lift some heavyweight stocks and supermarkets gained ground on positive industry data.The blue chip benchmark traded 0.19% higher at 7,519.62 by lunchtime, though the FTSE 250 was flat at 23,895.60.Investors were...

Shares in Shield Therapeutics (STX:AIM) skipped ahead by 3.2% to 48.5p after the specialty biotech inked an exclusive licence agreement for its Accrufer oral iron deficiency drug with Canadian private company KYE Pharmaceuticals.Under the terms of the tie-up, KYE will develop and commercialise Accrufer in Canada, where iron deficiency is a public health concern.In today's announcement, Shield...

Major UK equity markets lost the positive momentum established in the previous session during early trading on Wednesday morning.Both the blue chip FTSE 100 FTSE 250 dipped into negative territory. At 9am the FTSE 100 was trading down 0.05% at 7501.43, and the FTSE 250 was 0.07% weaker at 23,880.65.Investors will be awaiting the release of US ADP private sector payrolls data later today for...

Shares in iron deficiency specialist pharmaceutical firm Shield Therapeutics (STX:AIM) leapt 31% to 38.4p after it said it had made substantial progress in expanding access points for Accrufer in the US.The company launched its oral iron deficiency drug in July 2021 and today announced it has successfully secured payer coverage with several large pharmacy benefit managers, including Express...

London's FTSE 100 ended Monday's session in positive territory, wiping out earlier losses to trade firmly above 7,100 by the close of play and shrugging off a weaker open on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 was down 0.16% to 4,429.43 by 4.30pm UK time.COMPANY NEWSIn company news, wealth manager Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) sank 11.2% to £14.57, even as it reported an 8% rise in annual underlying...

London's FTSE 100 was broadly flat on Friday, the blue chip benchmark off 0.22% to 7,004.45 points early doors despite news of very strong UK retail sales last month, boosted by non-essential retailers being allowed to reopen on 12 April.Bitcoin's extreme volatility this week has only added to existing worries like inflation and the pandemic, which have impeded the progress of equity markets...

Specialty biotech company Shield Therapeutics (STX:AIM) is at an exciting point in its development and is worth buying before the market switches on to its full potential.It is due to launch its proprietary iron deficiency drug Accrufer into the US market at the beginning of June 2021, after raising fresh equity of £29.2 million in March.The product is a novel, low dose oral iron replacement...

UK stocks erased their early gains to end lower on Wednesday as investors awaited an update from the US Federal Reserve due after the market close regarding the outlook for the US economy.At 4.35pm the benchmark FTSE 100 index was down 7 points at 6,078, led lower by supermarket groups Sainsbury (SBRY) and Tesco (TSCO) and engineers Melrose (MRO) and Roll-Royce (RR.).The FTSE 250 mid-cap index...

UK markets fell sharply during the Friday session following a weak opening on Wall Street as ups the ante in his pandemic spate with China. The US President claims to have seen evidence that the coronavirus emerged from Chinese labs, yet US Intelligence officials distanced themselves from those allegations.Dismal UK manufacturing data weighed on the investor mood, adding to the gloomy economic...

UK stocks opened on the back foot, following the biggest slide in China stocks in eight months on continued fears over the spread of the new flu-like coronavirus. Millions of Chinese are expected to this weekend travel for the Lunar New Year.The FTSE 100 was 0.3% lower at 7,535 points while the FTSE 250 was also off 0.3% to 21,669 points. Oil and resource stocks were weak while banks and...

Speciality pharmaceutical company Shield Therapeutics (STX:AIM), announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved its main product aimed at treating iron deficiency in adults with a broader than expected label, boosting the shares by 60% to 165p.The US is the largest and most attractively reimbursed pharmaceutical market, with between eight and nine million people who...

Despite a drag from miners, London's FTSE 100 recovered by 10.9 points to trade at 7,500 on Friday with the FTSE 250 up 41.6 points to 19,862, as Vodafone (VOD) jumped on plans to create a separate European tower company and education firm Pearson (PSON) perked up on a positive trading missive.Mobile giant Vodafone rose 7.4% to 142p on news it will legally separate its towers business into a...

It has been a volatile few years for the healthcare industry with several headwinds acting as a drag on performance, including the threat of drug pricing caps and healthcare reform in the US. Is life now getting better?The NASDAQ Biotech index in early October traded at its highest level since December 2015. On the UK stock market, shares in many drug makers have been in a rising trend since...

A surge in support for 'Leave' ahead of Britain's referendum on EU membership along with falling commodity prices hits the stock market and sterling in early trading.FTSE 100 shares fall 0.5% to 6,012 and sterling, after a volatile session on Monday, dips around half a cent against the dollar and now buys $1.413.The corporate news story of the day comes at Premier Farnell (PFL), which is being...

After providing support for the index yesterday (25 Feb) the banks - in the form of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) - weighed on the FTSE 100 today but mining stocks came to the rescue with Glencore (GLEN), Rio Tinto (RIO) and BHP Billiton (BLT) all up more than 4%. The FTSE as a whole gains 1.4% to 6096.92.RBS dives 8% to 224.2p after reporting a £2 billion loss in 2015. The lender allocated...