Northgate Share News (NTG)

London has stabilised after the pounding for share prices on both sides of the Atlantic. Anglo-Swedish drugs giant AstraZeneca is the best performer after it received a favourable US ruling in its battle to keep control of the patents to its best-selling cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor.BP is also higher. The FT says Anadarko, a 25% partner to BP on the Macondo prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, approved several key aspects of the UK company's designs for the project. Miners are weak on the poor US consumer confidence figures yesterday. Rio Tinto meanwhile is to raise its stake in Ivanhoe Mines by 7.3% to 29.6% and provide sufficient funds to Ivanhoe to continue the development of the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold complex as scheduled. Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered confirmed the well-flagged story that it is to buy into the Agricultural Bank of China. The bank is buying $500m of the H shares being floated by Agricultural Bank of China, one of the top four commercial banks in China.Oil services specialist Hunting said trading in the first half has been 'very positive' despite the BP oil spill and sluggish natural gas prices, though the group admitted that there will be some impact from the Gulf of Mexico disaster in the second half.Entertainment media retailer HMV announced results that were in line with market expectations, while sales burst through the £2bn level to hit a record level. More importantly for income investors who have taken advantage of the stock's 13% dividend yield, the full year dividend has been held at 7.4p.SDL, the information management solutions provider, has bought Dutch browser-based software developer Xopus. The initial consideration is €1.6m, with the company being bought on a debt free basis. The cost of the acquisition could rise to €2m, depending on the performance of Xopus in the year to 30 June 2011.Big hits such as 'Avatar', 'Iron Man 2' and 'Sex and the City 2', helped cinema chain Cineworld overcome the competing attractions of the World Cup and lift revenue by 3.7% in the half year to June.Car and van renter Northgate has returned to profit after the huge write-downs that nearly sank the company last year, but ruled out a dividend in view of the economic uncertainty in both its main markets.