Tip of the month

My tip this month is the strongest of the defensive stocks, GlaxoSmithKline, the world's second-biggest pharmaceutical company, for four reasons that should see its share price hit £15 over the next six months.

First, GSK makes 96 per cent of its revenues outside the UK and has benefited from the slide in sterling against the dollar. Second, in third-quarter results, it reported a sales rise of seven per cent to £5.9bn. Pre-tax profit fell 14 per cent to £1.9bn, but overall results were better than expected. Third, sales were boosted by asthma drug Advair, whose figures rose seven per cent. And fourth, new chief executive Andrew Witty has shaken up research and development by adopting a venture capital-style funding board to spread cash more widely as against focusing on a single blockbuster drug.

Buy GSK at £11.25p, with a trailing 20 per cent stop/loss.

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