Three things you need to know in the financial markets this morning from investment writer, Tony Cross.
GlaxoSmithKline
There’s a note out form GlaxoSmithKline LON:GSK this morning regarding its COVID vaccination program. The company is clearly lagging other big names here, but the success if its phase 2 trail means the product is moving to phase 3. There’s a bit of detail to wade through in the note but one line that stands out is its potential application as a booster dose, something that could prove increasingly important given the occurrence of variants.
Novacyt
Keeping with the health sector, there’s a note from AIM-listed Novacyt [LON:NCYT], announcing that its PCR geotyping portfolio has been included in NHS England’s Variant of Concern framework. There’s no detail here as to the value of this deal, but with healthcare providers globally set to be watching for mutations of the virus for some time – and the stock languishing well below highs seen over the winter – this news could well receive a positive response from investors.
Ryanair
Full year results are out from Ryanair [LON:RYA] this morning, with a record EUR815 million loss having been recorded. However the carrier believes the recovery has already taken off, with booking having risen from around 500,000 a week at the end of April to a current rate of 1,500,000. If the European vaccine rollout remains on track then the airline believes it could be close to break even for the financial year to March 2022, where it expects to carry between 80 million and 120 million passengers. To put that in context, 27.5 million flew this year and in the 12 months to March 2020, some 149 million passengers boarded Ryanair flights.
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