The intellectual property rights to cloning technology that helped spawn Dolly the sheep changed hands today in a £760,000 (€1.1m) deal.

Music stars such as Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon, David Essex and voice of Bob The Builder, Neil Morrissey, are in line for a cash bonanza for unclaimed record royalties.

The FTSE 100 Index is up 27.7 points at 5346.5 at mid-morning.

The Scottish firm involved in the cloning of Dolly the sheep was tonight ‘‘fairly confident’’ it would avoid a cash crisis because of a lack of investment.

Five newborn cloned piglets could have a dramatic impact on attempts to transplant animal organs into humans, it was announced today.