Mediscience pros & cons

Market watchers had mixed reactions to last week's announcement by the London Stock Exchange that it had formed the techMARK mediscience Index to track the performance of 48 LSE-listed healthcare companies, including therapeutic, diagnostic, drug delivery and specialty pharma plays. The main divide was between those who prefer to create their own baskets of stocks versus those who think it will help investors to see the performance of healthcare plays separated from the high tech arena.

As is usual when such indexes are set up, Close Fund said it would set up a tracking fund to cover 40 of the 48 companies. The tracking fund would exclude FTSE 100 companies, such as Celltech (LSE:CCH;CLL); Shire (LSE:SHP;SHPGY) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK; LSE:GSK; GSK). Close was not available for comment, but interest from institutional and private investors remains to be seen...