GSK dominates leader board
Jul 3 2008 by Graeme King, The Journal
THE FTSE 100 failed to hold on to its earlier gains with retailers weighing on the benchmark index. The FTSE 100 ended the midweek session 53.6 points lower at 5426.30.
The pharmaceutical stocks such as AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline dominated the main index’s leader board rising by 4.84% and 3.90% respectively.
The share price of GlaxoSmithKline has fallen gradually since July 2006 when it was standing at £15.40. In addition a court in Alabama ordered GSK and Novartis to pay $114.3m for inflating prices of drugs. Glaxo’s damage was $81m.
On Tuesday, it was announced that Glaxo had signed an agreement with Innogenetics, a biogenetics company.
In the agreement, Glaxo will have an ability to use the HPV SPF10 genotype technology in clinical studies of the HPV vaccine. Glaxo’s Cervarix drug was approved by the European Commission to be used in cervical cancer prevention earlier in the year. Shares in GlaxoSmithKline closed at 1146p.
Taylor Wimpey shares were marked lower by 42% as it said that it had failed to raise further equity capital and Dresdner Kleinwort downgraded the stock.
Local quoted housebuilders in The Journal North 40, Barratt Developments and Bellway, fell 29.07% and 9.47% respectively.
Shares in Tanfield group recovered slightly from Tuesday’s falls as the shares closed 11.2% higher at 6.15p yesterday. In addition, the analyst Investec Securities upgraded the stock from a ‘Hold’ to a ‘Buy’.
Ken Oiwa Ken.oiwa@brewin.co.uk
