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By Tricia Wright
LONDON (Reuters) - The FTSE edged 0.2 percent higher in midday trade on Thursday, driven by strength from drugmakers and energy stocks, while banks fell back after recent gains.
By 12:09 p.m. the FTSE 100 .FTSE was up 10.82 points, or 0.2 percent, at 5,655.45, after it closed 0.4 percent higher on Wednesday, at a 21-month closing peak boosted by firmer banks and commodity issues.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) grabbed the top spot on the blue chip leader board, up 2.6 percent after Novartis (NOVN.VX) handed back U.S. rights to a drug widely thought to be a generic copy of its blockbuster Advair.
This was seen as reducing the threat of cheap copies of the lung drug in Glaxo's biggest market.
Peers AstraZeneca (AZN.L) and Shire (SHP.L) also rose, adding 0.9 and 0.4 percent respectively.
Energy stocks were higher too, led by BG Group (BG.L), up 2.2 percent on market talk of Exxon Mobil's (XOM.N) interest in the company.
BP (BP.L), Cairn Energy (CNE.L) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) put on 0.1 to 1.1 percent.
Among individual movers, British Airways (BAY.L) put on 1.2 percent as Societe Generale and UBS raised their target prices for the airline and press reports said that its merger deal with Iberia (IBLA.MC) will close next week. Continued...
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