Astrazeneca Is Empowered By Optimism In Vaccine Trials

On the eve of the third quarter, investors again received good news from Astrazeneca.

A final result from in-depth studies of its potential Covid-19 vaccine could be available by the end of this year, says the study’s chief investigator Andrew Pollard.

His comments come days after the UK’s health authority, the regulator for medicines and health products, confirmed it had launched an accelerated review of the potential vaccine.

While the company could determine whether or not the vaccine would work by the end of 2020, regulatory hurdles would still need to be overcome and tough policy decisions would be made about who would get it first.

But with a normal life pending until a treatment was published, the news on the stock market received rave reviews.

Investors were also willing to overlook the fact that Astrazeneca, which rose to the largest on the Footsie during the pandemic, fell far short of a supply deal with the UK.

By the end of this year, only 4 million potential Covid-19 shots can be fired instead of the originally planned 30 million.

Astrazeneca shot to the top of the Footsie last night before the – at least by city standards – much-anticipated latest numbers were available. Its shares rose 6.9 percent, or 548 pence, to 8,511 pence and valued it at £ 112 billion.

But it was Royal Mail who stole the crown as the FTSE 350’s top riser as the mid-cap group jumped 8 percent to 182p to 252.5p.

The spreadsheet whizzes at JP Morgan improved their rating on the 504-year-old postal operator’s stock, which they moved from neutral to overweight.

It comes just a few weeks after their last upgrade and they have also increased the value of their stock from 253 to 374 pence.

No longer do they expect the number of packages Royal Mail will deliver to drop in winter, and revenue is expected to grow 1 to 2 percent in the coming years, which brings in more money and means less pressure to cut costs cause cuts.

But JP Morgan analysts have not been so generous with Primark owner Associated British Foods.

They cut the retailer’s target price from 2,740p to 2,250p while Jefferies also made a small cut.

The stock fell 1.2 percent, or 21 pence, to 1,707 pence, despite Chairman Michael McLintock attempting to boost the share price by spending £ 155,000 on the purchase of 9,000 shares.

The FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 both finished higher after a volatile day in world markets as the US presidential election results came in far closer than predicted.

The Footsie gained 1.7 percent and rose 96.49 points to 5883.26, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 rose 1.7 percent or 304.38 points to close at 17,796.08.

Packaging company Smurfit Kappa rose 3.9 percent, or 120 pence, to 3,214 pence after it said the boom in online shopping had also contributed.

Plans have been outlined to pay a second interim dividend, a year-end bonus to employees, and return any support from Government Covid after the quarter was much better than expected.

The additional dividend of around 25 pence per share means that the payouts are the same as in previous years.

Investors in contractor Morgan Sindall were also greeted with a dividend update.

The stock rose 7.4 percent, or 8.6 pence, to 1,250 pence after promising to pay dividends, reassuring the market that the new lockdown will have minimal business impact and that its profits are “slightly over “The forecast of £ 60m will be this summer.