£944m share boost for private hospitals chain

GLOBAL private hospital provider Mediclinic was by far the FTSE’s biggest winner, with a healthy £944m added to its value after Abu Dhabi’s government scrapped a surcharge on treatment.

Shares rose to a six-month high after the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi ordered the 20pc charge to be waived.

Although the announcement was confirmed on the UAE’s official news agency, Mediclinic, which owns 64 hospitals and 40 clinics, said it was waiting for precise details of the changes.

Mediclinic bought UAE’s Al Noor Hospitals Group for £1.4bn last year, helping to push it into the FTSE 100. But it has been hampered by regulation in the region ever since. Shares rose 17.5pc, or 128p, to 859p.

The FTSE 100 reversed its previous day’s gains, falling 0.7pc, or 51.55 points, to 7237.17.

Miners found themselves among the biggest losers, with BHP Bil

liton down 4.8pc, Fresnillo down 3.8pc, and Glencore down 3.2pc as the price of copper dropped 0.7pc.

Software firm Fidessa was the biggest loser on the FTSE 250 after reporting that political uncertainty could hit performance this year.

The company provides trading, i nvestment management and information technology to financial institutions around the world.

In a management statement, it said European elections, Brexit negotiations and the new US president have led customers to take longer than normal to make purchasing decisions. But revenue growth is still expected to be at levels seen last year as the firm continues to benefit from a weak pound, with more than 60pc of revenue derived outside the UK. Shares sank 8.1pc, or 211p, to 2400p.

Engineer Weir Group was also among the index’s biggest losers despite a quarterly statement i ndicating that the f i rm was largely on the road to recovery.

The business, which makes pipes and valves for the energy and mining sectors, saw orders for the first quarter rise by 50pc, slightly ahead of expectations, driven by strong demand from North America.

But the firm said flow control orders fell 11pc, while downstream markets continued to challenge. Its shares dipped 6.6pc, or 138p, to 1945p.

Drug maker Amryt Pharma jumped after a key breakthrough in a treatment for a rare life - threatening disease, Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia, which stops the body removing so-called bad cholesterol. Amryt specialises i n treatments f or ‘orphan’ diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people nationwide.

A study found that the drug, called Lojuxta, reduced cholesterol more successfully than any other treatment on the market.

Shares were up 11.3pc, or 2.5p, to 24.5p, with the stock returning 25.6pc year-to-date. However, fellow drug maker

Synairgen was less fortunate. It lost nearly half its value after partner AstraZeneca rejected a drug it was developing to help patients with asthma when they get a cold.

The firm, founded at the University of Southampton, said the drug’s effects could not be determined because cold infections did not affect the symptoms of respiratory conditions as much as expected. As a result, biopharmaceutical gi ant AstraZeneca announced it was returning the rights to the drug, which it purchased for £180m in 2014.

Synairgen shares fell 49pc, or 12.75p, to 13.25p.