London, May 16, 2026, 17:04 (BST)
- GSK’s London shares ended Friday at 1,862.5p, down 0.5%, but still finished the week about 1.1% above the prior Friday’s close.
- The London market was closed for the weekend after a weak Friday session for the FTSE 100, the UK blue-chip index.
- Investors head into Monday balancing a China hepatitis B deal, a final buyback tranche and lingering doubts over the quality of GSK’s first-quarter beat.
GSK’s shares slipped into the weekend, leaving Monday’s session as an early test of whether investors still want to buy the drugmaker after a China pipeline deal and a fresh buyback push, or whether the stock remains capped by dividend and earnings-quality concerns.
The stock closed Friday at 1,862.5 pence, down 10p, or 0.53%, with the day’s range stretching from 1,855.5p to 1,899.5p. It was still up from 1,843p a week earlier, helped by a sharp Tuesday gain, but the move was not clean. Volume on Friday was 11.08 million shares, above several sessions earlier in the week.
That matters now because the market is shut on Saturday, not because of a holiday but because it is the weekend, and the next full London session will have to digest the same split picture: a company still pointing to pipeline growth, and a share price that has not fully repaired the fall that followed April’s first-quarter report.
One drag was mechanical. GSK’s ordinary shares went ex-dividend on Thursday, meaning buyers from that date no longer qualify for the declared payout. The company’s Q1 dividend timetable showed an ordinary-share ex-dividend date of May 14, a record date of May 15 and payment due on July 9.
The bigger bull case is still the pipeline. GSK said on May 11 it had entered an exclusive collaboration with Sino Biopharmaceutical’s CTTQ unit to accelerate bepirovirsen, its experimental chronic hepatitis B treatment, in mainland China. Mike Crichton, GSK’s president, international, said the aim was to “reach more patients” in a country where GSK says chronic hepatitis B affects 75 million people. GSK
Bepirovirsen is central to management’s effort to widen GSK beyond HIV and vaccines. Reuters reported GSK expects peak annual sales of more than 2 billion pounds for the drug and a Chinese regulatory decision in 2027; the company also has past China-linked deals with Hengrui and Hansoh Pharma.
Cash returns are also in the frame. GSK launched the fifth and final tranche of its 2 billion pound share buyback programme, with roughly 180 million pounds expected to run from May 11 to June 26, Sharecast reported. A buyback is a company repurchase of its own shares; it can support earnings per share by reducing the number of shares outstanding.
Still, investors have not forgotten April 29. GSK reported Q1 turnover of 7.63 billion pounds and core earnings per share — an adjusted profit measure — of 46.5p, while reaffirming 2026 guidance and a 2031 sales outlook of more than 40 billion pounds. Chief Executive Luke Miels called it a “strong start to 2026.” GSK
The market reaction was harsher than the numbers looked. James Eugene, research analyst at Verso Investment Management, told Reuters the selloff reflected “quality concerns around the earnings beat,” pointing to one-off factors and softer trends in general medicines. Reuters
The competitive backdrop is active, especially in China-sourced pharma assets. Reuters reported this week that Jiangsu Hengrui and Bristol Myers Squibb signed collaboration and licensing deals that could include up to $15.2 billion in milestone payments, another sign that large Western drugmakers are competing hard for Chinese research pipelines.
But the set-up can break the other way. If investors decide the Q1 beat was too dependent on one-offs, or if the broader FTSE 100 tone stays weak, the buyback may not be enough to stop renewed selling. Regulatory timing for bepirovirsen is another uncertainty; a delay or narrow approval would weaken one of the cleaner parts of the GSK growth story.
For Monday, the price call is cautious: GSK is likely to be watched inside Friday’s 1,855.5p-1,899.5p band unless fresh sector news lands. A move above 1,900p would point to buyers testing the recovery again. A break below 1,855.5p would put the late-April low near 1,850p back in view.
