London, June 6, 2026, 16:04 BST
- GSK shares ended Friday up 1.89% at 1,938p. The FTSE 100 edged up 0.07%.
- London trading is shut Saturday. The stock finished the week up 3.00%.
- Next up for investors is CEO Luke Miels’ appearance at the Citi healthcare conference on June 10.
GSK finished the week strong, jumping 1.89% to 1,938p on Friday as buyers stepped into UK pharma ahead of the weekend. The move outpaced the FTSE 100, which added just 0.07%. GSK shares remain 15.07% off the 52-week high of 2,282p set on Feb. 18.
GSK heads into next week with momentum partly back after trading paused for the weekend, with shares finishing 3.00% higher over five days and up 6.22% since Jan. 1, based on MarketScreener data. The London market shut after Friday’s session.
GSK shares bounced back after a rough start to the week. Investing.com data had the stock down Monday and Tuesday, before clawing back gains for three sessions. GSK finished Wednesday at 1,851.5p, Thursday at 1,902p, and ended Friday at 1,938p.
Earnings quality is still the main question. GSK told investors in April that first-quarter sales were up 5% at constant exchange rates, reaching £7.6 billion. Specialty medicines grew 14%. Vaccines rose 4%. General medicines dropped 6%. The company kept its 2026 guidance for sales growth at 3% to 5%, and for core operating profit and core earnings per share to grow 7% to 9%. Core results are adjusted numbers that remove items GSK says don’t belong to the regular business.
GSK Chief Executive Luke Miels told investors the company made “a strong start to 2026,” adding that GSK was focused on “execution and accelerating R&D,” or research and development. Investors will hear from him again on Wednesday when Miels appears at the Citi European Healthcare CEO Conference in London, ahead of GSK’s Q2 earnings and portfolio update set for July 28. GSK
AstraZeneca shares moved up 2.24% to £138.58 on Friday, ahead of the FTSE 100. The stock’s gain came as investors picked up more defensive healthcare, not just GSK.
Pipeline drugs are still a draw for GSK. Last week, Reuters said GSK’s chronic hepatitis B candidate, bepirovirsen, led to a functional cure for about 19% of certain patients in late-phase studies; a functional cure means the main virus markers are undetectable after stopping treatment. GSK is targeting peak yearly sales of over £2 billion from bepirovirsen. The company expects a U.S. regulator ruling by Oct. 26.
But there’s a chance investors will view the bounce as only a defensive move, not a shift in the outlook. James Eugene, research analyst at Verso Investment Management, told Reuters after the April numbers that the selloff was about “quality concerns around the earnings beat,” adding that slower general medicines trends made the beat “more modest than the numbers suggest.” Reuters
Analysts are not calling for a clear breakout. GSK’s consensus numbers as of May 26 put 2026 turnover at £33.67 billion, earnings per share at 179.8p, and the dividend at 69.4p, according to estimates from firms including Bank of America, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, JPMorgan, and UBS.
Stock opens the week on stronger footing but still faces doubts. Miels needs to prove specialty drugs and pipeline assets are enough to counter pressure on older products, weak vaccine sales and the looming HIV patent cliff. Friday gave the stock a boost. The case isn’t closed.
