Glaxosmithkline Share News (GSK)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Wednesday.
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COMPANIES
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The UK's big-four supermarket chains continue to feel the squeeze from heavy discounters and upmarket grocers, but while Asda continues to outperform its three big rivals, Tesco and Wm Morrisons Supermarkets are still taking the brunt of falling sales and declining market share, according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel. The big four are feeling the squeeze as Tesco and Morrisons market shares remained under pressure in the 12 weeks to August 17, while J Sainsbury, usually one of the better performing of the four, suffered a small drop in share to 16.4% from 16.5%, as its sales growth lags behind the market at 0.3%. The four big players are being squeezed between players including Aldi, Lidl and Farmfoods at the bottom end of the market, and Waitrose and Marks & Spencer Group at the premium end.
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Royal Bank of Scotland and National Westminster Bank, both members of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, were fined GBP14.5 million by the UK financial regulator for "serious failings" in their advised mortgage sales business. The Financial Conduct Authority said it would have imposed a GBP20.7 million fine on the firms, but they qualified for a 30% discount as they agreed to settle at an early stage of the investigation. In a statement, the FCA said the firms failed to ensure that advice given to customers was suitable, citing two reviews of sales from 2012, which found that in over half the cases the suitability of the advice was not clear from the file or call recording.
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GlaxoSmithKline said Tuesday the US Food and Drug Administration approved a supplemental New Drug Application for the once-daily use of Promacta (eltrombopag) in patients with severe aplastic anaemia who have had an insufficient response to immunosuppressive therapy. Severe aplastic anaemia, or SAA, is a blood disorder where the bone marrow fails to make enough red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Eltrombopag, an oral thrombopoietin (TPO) receptor agonist, works by helping to induce proliferation and differentiation of bone marrow stem cells to increase production of blood cells.
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BG Group said the results from its second drill-stem test on the Mzia discovery in Block 1, offshore Tanzania, has provided further support for a hub development to supply a potential onshore liquefied natural gas project. The exploration and LNG company said the drill-stem test on the Mzia-3 appraisal well was drilled in approximately 1,800 metres of water around six kilometres north of the original Mzia-1 discovery. Ophir Energy also participates in the well.
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Evraz said that it swung to a pretax profit in its first-half and remains confident in its business model as revenue fell on reduced selling prices and overcapacity across the global steel industry. The integrated steel making and mining company said pretax profit for the six months to June 30 came in at USD85 million, up from a USD139 million loss last year. Revenue, however, fell 7% to USD6.81 billion from USD7.32 billion in the first-half of 2013, a decrease which primarily reflects lower selling prices as a result of overcapacity in the global steel industry. Evraz said its operating profit more than doubled during the first-half, up to USD297 million from USD145 million last year.
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Polymetal International said revenue in the first half inched up, but it swung to a net profit after impairment charges and foreign exchange losses that hit its results last year weren't repeated. The gold, silver and copper-mining exploration and production company, with operations in Russia and Kazakhstan, said a sharp fall in gold and silver prices year-on-year was offset by strong growth in gold sales volumes. It said its performance was also driven by a strong cost control and production growth. Polymetal reported net earnings in the six months to June 30 of USD100 million, compared with a net loss of USD255 million in the first half of 2013. The company declared an interim dividend of USD0.08 per share, compared with a dividend of USD0.01 per share last year. Revenue in the first half rose only 0.8% to USD727 million, from USD721 million last year.
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Balfour Beatty looked to appease disgruntled shareholders following the collapse of its merger talks with Carillion, as it revealed that the value of its public-private partnership portfolio is now worth GBP1.05 billion. Balfour Beatty said a review of its private-public partnership (PPP) portfolio has resulted in an increase in the total directors' valuation to GBP1.05 billion as at the end of June. This compared with GBP766 million at the end of December.
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Building merchants Grafton Group said it delivered a strong underlying performance in the first half, despite a drop in profit after its results in the previous year were boosted by a pension credit of GBP27.1 million. The Dublin-based FTSE 250 DIY group posted pretax profit of GBP45.9 million for the six months ended June 30, down from GBP51.5 million a year earlier, even though revenue crept up to GBP1.02 billion from GBP912.2 million. Underlying pretax profit, which excludes a non-recurring pension credit of GBP27.1 million, rose to GBP45.9 million from GBP24.5 million a year earlier.
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Property investment group Hansteen Holdings reported a big increase in interim profit, boosted in part by valuation gains. The company, which invests in UK and continental European industrial property, posted pretax profit of GBP66.7 million in the six months to June 30 from GBP14.9 million in the same period a year earlier, after posting a GBP28.8 million valuation gain on investment properties compared with a GBP2.4 million loss a year earlier. Revenue rose to GBP43.7 million from GBP41.9 million. In turn, Hansteen said its EPRA net asset value per share rose to 96 pence from 91 pence in December.
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Foxtons Group said it will once again reward shareholders with a special dividend, after a strong first half underpinned by recovery in the London housing market. The newly-listed estate agent said it will pay an interim dividend of 1.77 pence and a special dividend of 2.77 pence. At the full-year the company paid a final dividend of 1.70 pence and a special dividend of 3.74 pence per share - a total of 5.44 pence per share. The additional dividend comes amid a strong financial performance with pretax profit up 57% to GBP23.1 million for the six months ended June 30 from GBP14.7 million a year earlier, as revenue rose 16% to GBP72.8 million from GBP62.6 million, driven by strong sales and mortgage broking growth.
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John Laing Infrastructure Fund reported a 1.2% increase in the value of its portfolio over the first six months of the year. JLIF partners with public-sector counterparties across the world to deliver local and national infrastructure projects. In return, these provide government-backed, inflation-linked revenue streams to the business. In a statement, the infrastructure fund said its portfolio value increased by GBP9.4 million to GBP805.2 million in the six months ended June 30. The portfolio realised real underlying growth of 4.95% after taking into account acquisitions made during the period, distributions received and exchange rate movements, the fund said.
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MARKETS
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UK stock indices have edged higher as stock-specific news takes centre stage, pushing economic data, central banks statement and geopolitical tensions to one side - for now at least.
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FTSE 100: up 0.1% at 6,829.91
FTSE 250: up 0.4% at 16,055.87
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.9% at 777.37
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The pound and euro both trade higher against the dollar in what is a fairly quiet day in the economic calendar.
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.6570
EUR-USD: up at USD1.3182

GOLD: up at USD1286.59 per ounce
OIL (Brent): flat at USD102.60 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde has been charged with "negligence" over a colossal state payout to a businessman when she was French finance minister, Mediapart news website and AFP news agency reported. The charges came after Lagarde was questioned for a fourth time Tuesday by the Court of Justice of the Republic, which investigates and prosecutes allegations of wrongdoing by ministers in the course of their duties. AFP quoted Lagarde as saying she would not resign her IMF post over the charges.
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Ukraine and Russia have agreed to hold military consultations over the bloody conflict in eastern Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko said late Tuesday after two hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The consultations between members of both countries' general staff and border guard commands are meant to fulfil Ukraine's demand to reestablish government control of the border with Russia, Poroshenko told reporters in Minsk, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reported. Putin said after the Poroshenko meeting that both sides had agreed to swiftly revive so-called contact group talks between Russia, Ukraine and the Organization of Security and Co-Operation in Europe.
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French Prime Minister Manuel Valls reshuffled his Socialist government Tuesday, a day after dissolving his five-month-old cabinet following an internal dispute over austerity measures. Most leading ministers survived the reshuffle. Finance Minister Michel Sapin, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and President Francois Hollande's ex-partner, Environment and Energy Minister Segolene Royal, all kept their jobs. Two ministers who publicly criticized Hollande's belt-tightening agenda, Arnaud Montebourg and Benoit Hamon, were shown the door. Montebourg was replaced as economy and industry minister by Emmanuel Macron, a 36-year-old former Rothschild investment banker, who was an economic advisor to Hollande for two years.
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Germany's import prices declined at a faster rate in July, more than the consensus estimate, a report from the statistical office Destatis showed. The import price index fell 1.7% year-over-year in July following the 1.2% drop in June. Economists had expected a 1.4% decline. On a month-over-month basis, import prices fell 0.4%, after the 0.2% increase in June. This was more than the 0.1% fall expected by economists.
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German consumer sentiment is set to drop in September, according to a survey conducted by the market research group GfK. The forward-looking consumer confidence index fell to 8.6 from a revised score of 8.9 in August, data showed Wednesday. The index was expected to drop marginally to 8.9 from August's initially estimated value of 9.
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The latest ceasefire agreed between Israel and the Palestinians in the seven-week conflict in the Gaza Strip was holding, the Israeli military said. There were no Israeli airstrikes on Gaza after the ceasefire - described as indefinite - came into force on Tuesday evening. Palestinian militants did not fire any rockets at Israel, an army spokeswoman said. The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, on Tuesday welcomed the deal reached in Cairo as a "victory." In Israel, however, the Ynet news website said that the Israeli cabinet "appeared to be split" on the deal, with several ministers opposing the decision, and supporting further military action in Gaza.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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