rich telecommunications stocks like Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom. "It's not an environment, from the point of view of valuations, where you would want to be overly defensive and obviously the big story in terms of style is play on the hunger for yield," O'Neill said. AstraZeneca closed down 9.6 percent after its Crestor cholesterol drug was one of five medicines singled out by a reviewer at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as needing closer scrutiny. Rival GlaxoSmithKline ended 4.2 percent weaker as the spotlight fell on one of its asthma drugs, while Swiss firm Roche was down 2.4 percent as FDA approval for its Tarceva lung cancer drug cushioned concerns about its acne drug Accutane. "I think there is an over-reaction (in AstraZeneca) but I just don't see it recovering quickly," said one specialist sales dealer. "They need the support of the FDA and to see Crestor prescriptions rising, and that's not looking likely short-term." Funds have been flowing out of the pharmaceutical sector on concerns about regulatory issues and the relatively small number of drugs coming to market. But mid-cap European drugmakers like Germany's Schering had outperformed, the dealer added. --More 2034 Local Time 1734 GMT
