Linde, based in Munich, may leapfrog Air Liquide as the world's biggest maker of industrial gases when it completes the purchase of Lincare announced this month. Air Liquide had expressed interest in Clearwater, Florida-based Lincare, a person familiar with the sale process said in June. Air Liquide has exited the U.S home-care market twice, Potier said.

“The next three to four years will be years of great changes for the U.S. market,” Potier said. “I don't know how the home health-care market will stabilise.” U.S. federal authorities and private insurers have stringent requirements for companies managing customer files, and those falling short “may end up with the costs and not with the sales,” Potier said.

The market for home care “is mainly located in the U.S., Europe and Japan, though the emerging middle class in new economies is also asking for home care,” which is typically cheaper than hospital care, Potier said.

Eoin Treacy's view I have included Linde (2.03%), Air Liquide (2.39%) and Praxair (2.06%) in the list of autonomies from the beginning because of their global reach, dominance of the compressed gases sector and strong records of dividend growth. However, they are by no means the only notable constituents in the chemicals sector which is all the more remarkable for the number of companies now hitting new highs.

Air Liquide (listed in France) completed an 18-month consolidation three weeks ago to reassert its medium-term uptrend. Syngenta AG (listed in Switzerland) has rallied to post new closing highs. Symrise AG (listed in Germany) continues to extend its breakout to new all-time highs. Croda International (listed in the UK) continues to post new highs. PPG Industries (listed in the USA) remains in a consistent uptrend. Bayer AG (listed in Germany) has rallied impressively over the last 10 weeks and is becoming increasingly overextended as it approaches the 2008 peak. Lanxess (listed in Germany) and Eastman Chemical (listed in the USA) are testing the upper sides of their respective medium-term ranges.

Linde AG and BASF AG (both listed in Germany), Praxair and DuPont de Nemours (both listed in the USA), Umicore (listed Belgium), DSM NV (listed in the Netherlands), Israel Chemicals and AZ Electronic Materials (listed in the UK) have all found support in the region of their respective 200-day MAs over the last few weeks.