Shares: Taking Stock

SHIRE Pharmaceuticals, marketing and licensing prescription drugs, lifted the recent gloom over the biotech sector with a 45.5p rise to 409p. Shire cleared a stock overhang by completing a global share offering which included listing on Nasdaq, the US market for hi-tech stocks. Shire offered 21 million shares at 343p, raising pounds 72m. In the past year, the shares have soared by close to 90 per cent.

OVER on AIM, hotel minnow Peel Hotels added 7p to 97.5p. The project, which owns the Bull Hotel in Peterborough, has had a better reception than the last time Robert Peel ventured on to the stock market as chief executive of Thistle Hotels. There he was forced out by institutional shareholders after a disappointing share price performance following flotation. But shares in Peel Hotels have risen by 60 per cent since coming to the market at 60.5p a week ago.