London, July 2, 2026, 17:06 BST
- GSK plc (LON:GSK) traded near 2,012p after finishing Wednesday at 1,930p, putting the shares up about 4.2% on a midpoint move. The FTSE 100 (INDEXFTSE:UKX) was up 1.67%.
- GSK wrapped up its £2 billion buyback, with 270.9 million shares now in treasury and 4.045 billion voting rights outstanding.
- The buyback price has become a key number for the shares. The average repurchase worked out to less than 1,614p, or roughly 25% under where the stock finished Thursday.
- Nuvalent NASDAQ:NUVL faces its tender offer expiry July 14, while GSK’s Q2 results and portfolio update are set for July 28.
GSK plc (LON:GSK) shares bounced Thursday, with a UK retail broker’s page quoting them at 2,011p to sell and 2,012p to buy after closing at 1,930p. That’s roughly 4.2% higher at the midpoint against Wednesday’s close. The FTSE 100 (INDEXFTSE:UKX) finished up 1.67% at 10,652.87.
The gain wiped out Wednesday’s loss, when GSK dropped 2.57% to finish at £19.30. Volume was 5.4 million shares, under its 50-day average of 8.0 million. The stock closed that day 15.43% below its 52-week high of £22.82 hit on Feb. 18.
| London market read | Latest data | Investor read-through |
|---|---|---|
| GSK (LON:GSK) | 2,011p to sell / 2,012p to buy. Last close 1,930p. 7.56 million shares traded. | Shares moved back above the buyback price band set last week. |
| FTSE 100 (INDEXFTSE:UKX) | 10,652.87. Gained 1.67%. | GSK outperformed FTSE 100 by roughly 2.5 points on midpoint math. |
| AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) | 14,594p to sell / 14,596p to buy. Up 5.36%. | Big UK pharma name still led healthcare stocks today. |
| Haleon (LON:HLN) | 361.2p to sell / 361.4p to buy. Rose 2.82%. | Haleon, the old GSK consumer health business, moved higher but still behind GSK. |
GSK’s buyback wasn’t just about a bump in the share price. The cost to retire shares stands out. The company reported June 29 that it bought 123,939,156 ordinary shares from Feb. 24, 2025, spending just under £2 billion total. At the £2 billion limit, the average payout per share was under 1,614p. Shares closed Thursday near 2,012p, or roughly 25% higher.
GSK said its last buybacks, done from June 22 to June 26, finished off the programme. The volume-weighted average prices that week were between 1,919.89p and 1,967.46p. The company paid a peak of 1,995.50p on June 26. GSK’s shares were quoted above that highest buyback price on Thursday.
The buyback is now off the table. GSK holds 270,881,064 ordinary shares in treasury, and there are 4,045,395,364 ordinary shares in issue, not counting those treasury shares. Treasury stock now makes up 6.70% of voting rights, the company said.
| Capital and pipeline item | Confirmed figure | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Completed buyback | 123.94 mln shares; just under £2 bln | With the buyback done, share price now depends on earnings and any pipeline headlines, not day-to-day stock buying. |
| Treasury shares | 270.88 mln | Lowers the shares counted for UK voting and triggers on disclosure rules. |
| Nuvalent deal | $10.6 bln cash offer; $124 per share | Moves capital return away from buybacks and adds deal risk with cash plus fresh debt. |
| 2026 guidance | Sales growth 3%-5%; core operating profit and core EPS growth 7%-9% | Executives kept earnings guidance unchanged after the deal was announced. |
| Next company event | Q2 results and portfolio update, July 28, 2:00 p.m. BST | First market update for pipeline numbers since buybacks stopped. |
GSK moved forward with its tender offer for Nuvalent, launching the bid on June 24 via a wholly owned acquisition arm. The offer will run until just after 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on July 14, unless GSK extends it. The company said there’s no financing condition for this deal.
GSK is buying Nuvalent for $124 a share, a 40% premium over its last close. The net cost, after cash at Nuvalent, is $9.4 billion. GSK said the deal will lift revenue and operating profit starting in 2027, but will dilute core EPS by a low single-digit percentage in 2026, 2027 and 2028. GSK expects the deal to add to core EPS in 2029.
GSK CEO Luke Miels described the Nuvalent deal as “three products in one.” He said the company’s sales goals didn’t hang on this acquisition. Reuters said Verso Investment Management’s James Eugene called the deal’s scale a surprise for investors. Many had looked for M&A in the $2 billion to $4 billion band. Reuters
Wedbush’s David Nierengarten said Nuvalent has been one of the top takeover targets he covers, pointing to its possible best-in-class kinase inhibitors. Nuvalent brings a pair of late-stage lung cancer drugs, zidesamtinib and neladalkib. U.S. decisions on these are expected in September and November.
The buyback comes ahead of the July 28 portfolio update. GSK posted core EPS of 46.5p for the first quarter, beating analyst estimates of 43.3p. Even so, shares slipped after the release, as Verso’s Eugene flagged “quality concerns around the earnings beat” related to one-offs. GSK left its full-year guidance unchanged. Reuters
Short-term technicals were mixed after GSK’s surge on Thursday. Traders Union cited Anton Kharitonov saying the stock’s uptrend “looks fragile,” but Viktoras Karapetjanc saw the “bullish structure remains intact.” According to the same report, GSK closed July 2 at 2,012p, up 82p, trading between 1,943p and 2,013p. Tradersunion
