Wednesday preview: GlaxoSmithKline, BoE Minutes

21st Jul 2009 16:05

Second quarter results from the drug giant GlaxoSmithKline are due Wednesday. Charles Stanley is looking for a 14% increase in year on year sales to £6.7bn. "By contrast, operating margins are likely to be adversely impacted by the significant off-patent pressure over 2008 caused by the loss of Lamictal, Imitrex, Wellbutrin XL and Paxil CR as well as the ongoing pressure on former blockbuster diabetes product Avandia," the broker says.Aside from the figures, analysts will be keen to see if the firm has anything to say about the H1N1 Virus outbreak. In a recent note on the company, Panmure Gordon said: "GSK should benefit from the situation medium term, and it is worth noting that GSK received an order from the US government totalling US$71m for its adjuvant technology, which should provide upside to forecasts beyond any specific H1N1 vaccine the company manufactures."On the economy front, investors will have an eye out for minutes from the latest meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee.The Bank kept UK interest rates at a record low and surprised the City by choosing not to expand its £125bn programme of quantitative easing. Borrowing costs were widely tipped to stay at 0.5% for the fourth month, but Monetary Policy Committee members were also expected to vote in favour of pumping another £25bn into the economy. Investors will be looking out for signals as to how the Bank might act in future meetings."It had been widely expected that the committee would extend the central bank's Quantitative Easing programme by a further £25 billion to £150 billion, thereby taking it up to the ceiling currently allowed by the Treasury," Howard Archer chief UK and European Economist of the analyst IHS Global Insight said."However, the MPC failed to do this, leading to speculation that it could be bringing the Quantitative Easing programme to an end. However, we doubt that this is the case, and suspect that the MPC felt that it could afford to "wait and see" for another month before deciding whether or not to extend the Quantitative Easing programme."INTERIMSGlaxoSmithKlineINTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATEAberdeen Asian Income Fund Ltd., Asset Man Inv Trust, Charter European Trust, Domino Printing, Sanderson GroupQUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATEBankers Inv Trust, Carador EUR Shares, City of London Inv TrustFINALSEbiquity, ZetarAGMSAccuma, Aqua Bounty Technologies (Reg S), Beowulf Mining, Ciref, Helical Bar, JPMorgan Fleming Japanese Smaller Companies Inv Trust, London & Stamford Property, Mountfield Group, Northern Petroleum, Rensburg AIM VCT, Securities Trust of Scotland, Walker GreenbankUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSBoE Interest Rate Minutes (09:30)FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEHome Retail Group, Liontrust Asset Managament, Templeton Emerging Markets Inv Trust, Walker Crips Group, Wynnstay PropertiesFINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATEArtemis Alpha Trust, Business Post Group, Castings, Goldshield Group, Heath (Samuel) & Sons, Immunodiagnostic Systems, Investment Company (The), Kewill, London Stock Exchange Group, Mulberry Group, Prosperity Minerals Holdings, Welsh Industrial Inv Trust