In Europe on Tuesday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 added 0.98 percent to 1,460.47. Other European exchanges saw similar gains, with the Xetra Dax in Frankfurt gaining 0.92 percent to 6,595 and the CAC 40 up 0.97 percent to 5,437.13 in Paris.
The pharmaceutical sector was higher after Novartis (NYSE: NVS) gained approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for Tektura, a new blood pressure treatment that could generate as much as $1 billion per year in sales by 2010. Novartis added 4.9 percent to SFr70.10. Helped by this success and by analyst comment that pharma shares are too cheap, Merck (NYSE: MRK) gained 0.8 percent to €92.70 and Roche (SWX: ROG; OTC: RHHBY) was 0.9 percent higher to SFr216.
Peugeot’s (Euronext: UG; OTC: PEUGY) chief executive said at the opening of the Geneva car show that his company is not interested in purchasing DaimlerChrysler’s (FWB: DCX; NYSE: DCX; TYO: 7663) US Chrysler division. With no rivals voicing interest, analysts believe that any offers for the troubled carmaker will likely come from private equity and, indeed, rumors have a couple of private entities interested. Peugeot added 0.7 percent to €49.43, while DaimlerChrysler was 3 percent higher to €52. Meanwhile, Fiat (NYSE: FIA) gained 0.6 percent to €17.67 after Goldman Sachs repeated its “conviction buy” on the carmaker and raised its target share price from €17 to €22.