Zyprexa

They had dropped 16 percent this year through Friday.

The company's shares rose 10.3 percent on Oct.

21, 1987.

Shares of U.S.

drug makers Merck & Co., Lilly and Bristol- Myers Squibb Co.

also soared.

Merck increased $2.24, or 7.5 percent, to $32.25, Bristol-Myers rose 47 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $22.49 and Lilly increased 93 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $57.59.

Bristol-Myers is facing a patent challenge to its Plavix blood-thinner medicine.

The issue of generic medicine is also of concern to employers and pharmacy benefit managers, since the use of generic drugs can save them millions of dollars a year.

General Motors Corp., which is seeking to reduce costs that the company says puts it at a disadvantage to rivals, will spend about $5.6 billion this year on health care.

The shares of pharmacy benefit managers, including Medco Health Solutions Inc., and managed care companies, like WellPoint Inc., dropped Monday.

Yet, analysts said they were reluctant to blame the Lipitor ruling for the declines.

"You're just seeing some reallocation of funds within health care," said David Heupel, a Minneapolis-based portfolio manager at Thrivent Investment Management.

"Most people have probably not been big into the pharmaceutical names because they haven't provided any growth,...

in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, after rising as much as 12 percent earlier, the biggest gain in at least 25 years.

They had dropped 16 percent this year through Dec.

16.

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GlaxoSmithKline rose 23p to 1483p, carried up by the tide.

Housebuilder Crest Nicholson erected a gain of 16p at 463p after Citigroup lifted its target price to 470p from 420p.

Revived chatter that Gerald Ronson's Heron International has been approached for its 23.3% stake in the company also did the rounds.

Useful investing links FREE SERVICE: Order annual reports for free delivery Online auctioneer QXL ricardo was all over the shop.

It moved between extremes of 12510p and 10745p before closing 119p lower at £120.

Its rise from £70 has been accompanied by persistent takeover speculation and bolstered by tracker fund buying on the assumption it could soon be included in the FT small cap index.

A family of bears including the daddy of them all, Evil Kneivil, believes that QXL will never be allowed in the index because its 'free float' of shares trading on the LSE is below the required 25% limit.

Florissant, a Dutch private equity group, was left holding a 28% stake when a £14 a share bid lapsed earlier in the year and Izaki, an investment vehicle of Israeli entrepreneurs Ron Izaki and Shimon Weintraub, sits on a further substantial shareholding.

Conival firmed ½p to 27/8p after chief executive Jeremy Sc...