In London equities markets on Tuesday, good news in the pharmaceuticals sector helped the FTSE 100 to gain 0.5 percent to 5,255.8. The FTSE 250 was up as well, by 0.3 percent to 7,722.4. Volume amounted to 2.2 billion shares traded.

AstraZeneca gained 2.1 percent to £25.31 on the news that a study out of the University of California at Los Angeles showed that treatment by a cholesterol-lowering statin in the first 24 hours after a heart attack lowers the risk of mortality by 4 percent.

AstraZeneca’s statin drug, Crestor, currently has a current 6 percent market share for statins in the US, and investors hoped that the study will help the company reach its target of gaining 20 percent of the market.

Also in the pharmaceuticals sector, GlaxoSmithKline gained 1.8 percent to £13.32 on reports that it may be one of the bidders for Boots’s Healthcare International.

Higher crude oil prices sent oil shares up, as BP gained 2 percent to 622p and BG Group was up 2.1 percent to 492p. Steel company Corus added 2.2 percent to 47¼p when Morgan Stanley raised the forecast for the company’s earnings per share this year by 8 percent to 9.6p.

Meanwhile, toy company Character Group gained 15 percent to 57½p on the news that its new Doctor Who toys, including a radio-controlled Dalek, will be in the shops this week.