UK Stocks Drop as AstraZeneca's Heart Drug Trial Results, Geopolitical Tensions Weigh
London's FTSE 100 closed 0.16% lower on Thursday, driven by a decline in heavyweight AstraZeneca (AZN.L) after its late-stage trial results, while renewed US-Iran hostilities also weighed on sentiment.Shares of AstraZeneca tumbled 7.15%, making the pharmaceutical giant the worst performer on the blue-chip index, after it and Ionis said their Wainua treatment failed to meet the primary endpoint in a phase 3 trial of adults with transthyretin-mediated amyloid cardiomyopathy. The Cardio-TTRansform study did not show a statistically significant benefit over placebo on a composite measure of cardiovascular mortality and recurrent cardiovascular events through 140 weeks."Data comes as a surprise given we and investors hadn't even debated likelihood of a primary endpoint miss, given positive precedent data and successful launch for ALNY's competitor Amvuttra... While AZN notes it will further analyse the full dataset ahead of presentation at ESC-26 in Aug, we think approval is highly unlikely," BofA Global Research said.On the upside, Computacenter (CCC.L) surged 7.01% to lead FTSE 100 gainers after forecasting first-half adjusted pretax profit would double from 81.5 million pounds sterling a year earlier. The IT services company also expects full-year results to come in "comfortably ahead of market expectations."Investors also remained cautious as the US and Iran exchanged attacks for a second straight day, fueling uncertainty over the durability of the ceasefire."Traffic through the strait will almost certainly remain reduced until the security situation becomes clearer and market participants gain more visibility on whether a diplomatic off-ramp remains available," Rystad Energy said. "After the burial ceremony of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - killed by an Israeli strike at the outset of the conflict - ends on 9 July, both sides could adopt an even harder stance, driving a further uptick in geopolitical risk premiums."In the economic corner, the UK Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors house price balance stood at -33% in June, "broadly unchanged" from the revised -34% in the previous month, according to residential market survey data. The latest reading missed the consensus estimate of -31%."June's survey results offer some cautious encouragement that the worst of the slowdown in market activity may be beginning to pass, with several key indicators moving in a less negative direction for a second consecutive month," RICS Head of Market Research and Analysis Tarrant Parsons said. "Until there is greater clarity over both the political backdrop and the path of interest rates, housing market activity is likely to remain relatively subdued in the near term."