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By midday the FTSE 100 had shaken off its earlier losses and resumed the upwards momentum it displayed on its first trading day of 2022.
Broker upgrades helped lift some heavyweight stocks and supermarkets were higher on positive industry data.
Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca was flat at £84.91 after completing the transfer of its global rights for pulmonary drugs Eklira and Duaklir to Covis Pharma for $270 million.
Gambling software company Playtech said it intended to adjourn the court and general meetings relating to the 680 pence per share takeover offer from Aristocrat, to give JKO Play more time to put together a competing offer for the company. Its shares were down 1.7% to 719p.
Home-testing healthcare company MyHealthChecked rallied 7% to 2.52p after signing a contract with AAH Pharmaceuticals for the supply of the Fit to Fly/Pre-departure rapid antigen test.
Specialty pharmaceutical company Shield Therapeutics gained 2% to 48.05p after entering into an exclusive licence agreement for Accrufer with KYE Pharmaceuticals in Canada.
Life sciences business OptiBiotix Health added 0.7% to 46.8p after achieving British Retail Consortium accreditation. The accreditation paved the way for the company to sell final product solutions to partners in the retail channel containing its science backed pro and prebiotic ingredients.
Telecommunications and mobile money services company Airtel Africa fell 2% to 138.3p after announcing the first closing of the transaction to sell its telecommunications tower assets in Tanzania to a joint venture company owned by a subsidiary of SBA Communications Corporation, and Paradigm Infrastructure.
Gene and cell therapy group Oxford Biomedica rose 0.5% to £12.16 after signing a new license and supply agreement with Cabaletta Bio, granting the latter with a license to the company's LentiVector platform.
Cordiant Digital Infrastructure slipped 4.2% to 108.7p after entering into binding agreements to acquire a strategic interconnect data centre in New York and a digital infrastructure platform in Poland.
Life science company ValiRx fell 16.7% to 31.7p after entering into a service agreement with TheoremRx to engage with clinical research organisations and support vendors for the next clinical trial of the company's prostate cancer drug VAL201.