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News & tips: GlaxoSmithKline, Barclays, Victrex

The gold price pushed above $1,300-an-ounce ahead of Federal Reserves minutes out later this week.
April 8, 2014

Asia's 'tech' stocks continue to struggle in the wake of last week's reversal on NASDAQ, but gold prices pushed above $1,300-an-ounce as increasingly anxious traders looked ahead to Fed minutes coming later this week.

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UK drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the UK drugs giant is to examine allegations about its conduct in Iraq just nine months after an inquiry into the company’s business practices in China. GSK will investigate claims that it hired 16 state-employed doctors and pharmacists as paid sales representatives.

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Barclays (BARC) settled a £70m court case linked to the Libor scandal that will avoid the spectacle of former chief executive Bob Diamond from testifying in a lawsuit. Guardian Care Homes had alleged that Barclays had mis-sold two interest rate swaps that were linked to Libor, but a settlement has been reached under which Barclays will restructure a loan, thought to be worth about £40m, to Guardian Care Homes' owner, Graiseley.

Specialty plastics maker Victrex (VCT) warned that adverse currency movements would hit its results in the second half of the year ending September. Victrex generates about 97 per cent of its revenue outside the UK and the company confirmed that the problem was likely to drag into the next financial year.

The latest quarterly poll by the British Chambers of Commerce revealed that service exports are at an all-time high and a number of key manufacturing balances are also at record levels

Britain's biggest pawnbroker H&T Group (HAT) has confirmed that it is considering buying parts of rival Albemarle & Bond (ABM). In a statement to the market, H&T Group said it had made a proposal to Albemarle & Bond's administrators, PwC, to purchase some of the assets.

In a pre-close trading update, Falkland Islands Holdings (FKL) said it expects the trading performance for the year to March 31, 2014 to show an increase in underlying pre-tax profits, excluding amortisation and non-trading items. The board expects the total dividend to come in at no less than 11.5 pence per share.

Renold (RNO) revealed that its full-year results to be in line with market expectations. The closure of its Bredbury facility and the transfer of production to other Renold sites is on schedule and within budget. Trading across both divisions, and the group's net debt have continued in line with management expectations.

Model railway and Scalextric car maker Hornby (HRN) warned that a £200,000 exchange rate loss will lead to a £1.2m loss overall, but the group said it expects to deliver a performance for the year around breakeven at the underlying pre-tax level as indicated in the last trading update.

Despite political ructions, Ukrainian iron ore miner Ferrexpo (FXPO) revealed that its iron ore pellet output rose more than 9 percent in the first quarter this year, helped by higher grades. The miner said total pellet production was 2.7m tonnes in the first quarter, up 9.2 per cent from the same period last year.

Yorkshire’s Dart Group (DTG), the leisure airline, package holidays, and logistics group, announced that pre-tax profit is in line with expectations with the successful expansion of its package holidays division.

OTHER COMPANY NEWS:

Sports Direct (SPD) founder Mike Ashley has sold shares worth more than £200m in the sportwear retailer. The move came days after investors threw out a bonus scheme that would have handed Ashley £72m of free stock – and subsequent to a deal whereby Scottish retail tycoon Sir Tom Hunter sold 11 per cent of House of Fraser to Mr Ashley.

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