Market Report: Indivior reports in-line first-quarter numbers - and indicates it may revise guidance upwards

Indivior was in focus after the specialty pharma group, which concentrates on treatments for addiction and mental health disorders, reported in-line first-quarter numbers and indicated that it may revise guidance upwards at the half-year mark. Morgan Stanley raised their price target to 185p from 170p with an “equal-weight” recommendation.

The drugs group, which was spun out of Reckitt Benckiser last December, also reported positive results from a late-stage trial of its experimental schizophrenia medicine. “A strong Q1 should reassure the market as Suboxone volume share in the US has held up well,” said James Vane-Tempest of house broker Jefferies. Shares in Indivior jumped 17.3p to 220.4p, leading the list of FTSE 250 risers.

The FTSE 100 opened the first session of election week in positive territory but ended down 58.37 points at 6985.95. “Financial markets are very fickle, and without a clear answer [as] to who will be in Downing Street come Friday, dealers are giving sterling a wide berth,” said David Madden of IG. “Investors will wait out the election and when the dust settles next week, we will see more confidence in the London market.”

The mining sector reversed early falls after the Australian central bank cut interest rates to curtail the strength of the Aussie dollar in the face of declining investment and subdued demand from China.

Barclays slashed its rating on the European insurance sector to negative, knocking RSA Insurance by 10.1p to 415p, while second- liners Hiscox fell by 25.5p to 800p and Amlin shed 9.3p to 446.3p. Barclays cited deteriorating sector fundamentals – with the industry under pressure from low interest rates and radical change to the solvency regime – as reasons for the downgrade.

Among the small caps, Spirent was under pressure after reporting lower-than-expected first-quarter numbers, which prompted Panmure to cut the price target to 130p from 141p. Liberum warned that the technology group will still require a strong second-half performance, even if full- year forecasts are trimmed by 5 per cent. The shares fell 1.25p to 85.5p.