You won’t believe what Novartis just did! This giant pharmaceutical company is making a jaw-dropping $15bn move on the stock market. Find out why everyone is talking about it!

Big share price moves in Europe today include UK-based online retailer Ocado, Swiss drugmaker Novartis, and Swedish telecoms company Tele2:

• Ocado: Shares in the UK online retailer surged 13 per cent, leading the Europe-wide Stoxx 600 index, after it said its retail division was “making good progress, with a return to profitability” in the second quarter.

• Novartis: Shares in the Basel-based drug giant added 3.6 per cent after it launched a $15bn share buyback programme on the back of strong sales, pushing it to raise its outlook for the year.

• Tele2: Shares in the Swedish telecom retreated 10 per cent after it updated its capital expenditure guidance.

  

Darktrace’s independent review, launched after short sellers challenged its accounting practices in February, found areas that “could be improved” but were not “material” to its financial reporting, sending its shares 20 per cent higher.

The British cyber security company, which on Tuesday also reported revenue growth of 30 per cent in the year to June, was forced to rebut claims earlier this year that it created “fictitious clients” in an attempt to inflate sales figures.

EY “identified a small number of errors and inconsistencies”, but Darktrace’s board did not “consider these to be material to the financial statements”.

Cathy Graham, Darktrace’s chief financial officer, said, “EY provided some valuable recommendations for how we could implement these planned improvements as we move through this journey.”

UK grocery price inflation eased for a fourth consecutive month in July, according to data published by Kantar ahead of official inflation figures on Wednesday.

The research company found that the annual pace of grocery price inflation eased to 14.9 per cent in the four weeks to July 9, down from 16.5 per cent in the previous month and the steepest decline since its peak in March.

At the current level of inflation, households would have spent £683 more on their annual grocery bill to buy the same items as they did a year previously, though switching to cheaper products has reduced this to £330, according to Kantar.

Florida-based investment firm GQG Partners has bought a 6 per cent stake in Patanjali Foods, an Indian consumer goods company which markets itself as ayurvedic and is led by prominent yogi turned businessman Baba Ramdev.

In a filing to Indian stock exchanges on Monday, GQG said it had acquired 21.5mn shares of Patanjali Foods, equalling 5.96 per cent of total shares.

GQG did not disclose how much it paid for the shares, but the clearing price for professional bidders was Rs1,103.8 per share, according to the BSE stock exchange. This would suggest GQG paid Rs23.8bn (around $290mn) for the stake.

Ramdev, who campaigned for India’s prime minister Narendra Modi, has courted controversy in the past, describing modern medicine as a “stupid bankrupt science” during the pandemic.

The UK government’s controversial illegal migration bill is set to become law after it saw off a series of proposed amendments in the House of Lords on Monday night.

The bill, which would give the government powers to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda, and is the linchpin of prime minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to “stop the boats” crossing the English Channel, has received intense criticism from immigration lawyers and civil rights groups, but is popular among the right flank of Sunak’s Conservative party. 

A last-ditch attempt by the Lords to include nine amendments to the bill, including to instate protections for LGBTQ people being deported to unsafe countries, was voted against.

The bill will need royal assent from King Charles to become law.

Retirement income sales at FTSE 250 life insurer Just Group have more than doubled to £1.9bn in the first half of the year, as soaring gilt yields fuel corporate pension deals as well as the sale of individual annuities.

Just completed 35 so-called bulk annuity transactions in the period, up from 14 in the first half of last year, including its biggest to date, and said it has a record deal pipeline. Meanwhile, sales of individual guaranteed income products, whose rates have increased with gilt yields, were at their strongest since the introduction of new pension freedoms was announced in 2014.

Analysts RBC Capital Markets called the results a “step-change in demand for both bulk and retail annuities” and upgraded its earnings forecasts.

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has defended the strength of his conglomerate after a damaging short seller attack, while outlining plans to expand his business on bullish India growth forecasts.

Addressing the annual meeting of Adani Enterprises over video on Tuesday, Adani said: “We remain confident of our governance and disclosure standards.”

The tycoon also predicted that India would be the world’s second-largest economy by 2050, with income accelerating by over 700 per cent to about $16,000 a head.

“I anticipate that within the next decade, India will start adding $1tn to its [gross domestic product] every 18 months,” Adani said.

Swiss drug maker Novartis is “fully on track” for the spinoff of generics division Sandoz in “early October”, pending shareholder approval in September, chief financial officer Harry Kirsch told reporters on Tuesday.

The division, a household name in German-speaking countries that generates about $10bn in yearly sales, had attracted interest from private-equity companies as Novartis first began exploring options for its future.

But Kirsch said “the current interest environment does not make it easy for them”, adding that any offers would be discussed with the board.

“The operational separation [of Sandoz] has been absolutely achieved,” he said. “We are transactionally totally ready.”

Kirsch said Novartis “would rather” spend its cash on bolt-on acquisitions with the potential to generate “attractive returns” after announcing a $15bn share buyback on Tuesday, but that no such targets were available.

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has launched a $15bn share buyback programme after raising its outlook for the year on the back of strong sales.

Second-quarter sales grew 7 per cent to $13.7bn at constant currencies, the company said on Tuesday. Novartis now expects revenues for 2023 to grow at a high single digit, up from mid, with core operating income set to grow in the low double digits, up from a previous forecast of high single digits.

“Our growth drivers and rich pipeline continue to provide confidence in our mid-term growth outlook,” said chief executive Vas Narasimhan.

Novartis also said its board of directors has “unanimously” endorsed the total spin-off of generics division Sandoz, first announced last year.

China and the US can resolve their differences through environmental cooperation, Washington’s climate envoy John Kerry told Beijing’s top diplomat on Tuesday, sounding a rare note of optimism amid strained ties. 

“We are very hopeful that this can be the beginning not just of a conversation . . . on the climate track, but that we can begin to change the broader relationship,” Kerry told Wang Yi in Beijing, according to Reuters. 

Kerry’s third trip to China as US special presidential envoy for climate has restarted halted dialogue over global warming between the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters.

UK economy: Kantar’s grocery market share figures and price inflation numbers are expected.

Europe-Africa ties: Portugal hosts the two-day EurAfrican Forum for business and political leaders and non-government organisations. Attendees include Ghana’s president Nana Akufo-Addo, Angolan health minister Silvia Lutucuta and Portuguese foreign minister João Gomes Cravinho.

Corporate results: Updates are expected from British private bank Arbuthnot, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, UK retailer Ocado, Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto, Sweden’s Swedbank and UK fintech Wise. 

Asian stocks opened lower Tuesday on the heels of weaker-than-expected Chinese economic data.

The Hang Seng Index declined 1.77 per cent after Hong Kong markets resumed trading following a daylong halt triggered by a storm. The CSI 300 benchmark of mainland equities fell 0.41 per cent while South Korea’s Kospi slid 0.62 per cent. Japan’s Topix index climbed 0.38 per cent.

Official Chinese data released Monday added to concerns over decelerating growth in Asia’s largest economy, with gross domestic product expanding only 0.8 per cent quarter on quarter in the April-June period, compared with 2.2 per cent in the first quarter.

Chinese property developer Evergrande has for the first time unveiled the scale of financial losses incurred by a 2021 default that sparked a crisis in the country’s property sector.

The group, which is in the midst of a lengthy restructuring process, reported losses of Rmb476bn and Rmb106bn ($66.4bn and $14.8bn) for 2021 and 2022, respectively.

The reports are a rare glimpse into the scale of the company’s plight, which has been characterised by a lack of disclosure and opaque discussions with creditors.

The company at the time of its default had borrowed about $20bn from international creditors. At the end of 2022 Evergrande had Rmb2.4tn in total liabilities.

The Australian state of Victoria has cancelled plans to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games due to the event’s spiralling costs.

Daniel Andrews, Victoria’s premier, said the budget had blown out to A$7bn ($4.8bn) from an initial forecast of A$2.6bn.

The surprise move will rekindle concerns over the future of the games, which has struggled to convince cities to bear its costs. The 2022 games featured teams from 54 countries and 18 territories that are mostly former or current British colonies.

Victoria emerged last year as the only bidder. The games would have been held in several rural cities rather than in Melbourne, the capital.

Thailand: Thailand’s legislature holds a second round of voting to name a prime minister. On July 13, Move Forward party leader Pita Limjaroenrat — the only nominee — fell short of the necessary 375 votes in a joint session of both houses of parliament. Pita’s coalition plans to nominate him again.

Events: Elsewhere, the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors concludes in Gandhinagar, India, while officials from South Korea and the US meet in Seoul discuss nuclear deterrence against North Korea. Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida returns from a Middle East trip, covering Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar concludes his seven-day visit to Indonesia and Thailand.

Data: Hong Kong issues June unemployment rates. The Reserve Bank of Australia releases the minutes of its July monetary policy meeting.

Companies: Adani Enterprises and Adani Gas hold their first annual meetings since US-based short seller Hindenburg Research produced a report critical of Adani Group companies. India’s Zee Entertainment Enterprises presents first-quarter earnings, while Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto offers a second-quarter operations review.

BlackRock has named Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi Aramco, an independent director, as the $9.4tn money manager looks to bolster Middle East expertise on its board and fight US Republican claims that it is hostile to fossil fuel.

Nasser has headed Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer, since 2015. His addition brings BlackRock’s board to 17 members, with 15 independent directors.

Chief executive Larry Fink said the board would benefit from Nasser’s “unique perspective” including his “understanding of the global energy industry and the drivers of the shift towards a low-carbon economy as well as his knowledge of the Middle East region”.

The US criticised Russia’s exit from the Black Sea grain deal, with US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby calling the move an “irresponsible and dangerous decision”.

Kirby on Monday told reporters that the move would “exacerbate food scarcity and harm millions of vulnerable people around the world”.

He added: “Russia will be fully and solely responsible for the consequences of this military act of aggression,” saying Washington urged the Kremlin to “immediately reverse its decision”.

Wall Street stocks rallied on Monday as investors weighed the outlooks for the world’s two biggest economies and prepared for this week’s wave of US corporate results.

Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 closed 0.4 per cent higher, driven by technology and financial stocks, while the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite gained 0.9 per cent.

Helping boost US equities at the opening bell was a manufacturing index compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York that came in well above expectations, in a sign that businesses remain resilient to rising interest rates.

Read more on the day’s market moves here.

Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni has slammed Russia’s decision to pull out of the Black Sea grain deal, saying that “using the commodities that feed the world as a weapon is another offence against humanity”.

Meloni on Monday said Moscow’s termination of the agreement — which had enabled the export of 33mn tonnes of Ukrainian wheat by sea, more than half of it to developing countries — “is further evidence of who is a friend and who is the enemy of poorer countries”.

She added that Moscow’s actions should prompt reflections by “the leaders of those nations that do not want to distinguish between the attacked and the aggressor”.