BLUE-CHIP shares coasted yesterday amid thin corporate news as investors looked forward to Thursday’s first estimate of second quarter growth.

The UK’s gross domestic product figure is widely expected to have increased by 0.6 per cent, doubling the 0.3 per cent in the first quarter, when data is published by the Office for National Statistics.

With little in the way of major corporate news, the FTSE 100 was treading water, drifting 7.5 points down to 6623.2 points.

The pace of corporate reporting should pick up with figures due from top flight firms BT, BSkyB and Unilever.

GlaxoSmithKline, which will post half-year results tomorrow, was back under the spotlight as it admitted some of its senior executives appear to have acted outside of processes and controls, which breaches Chinese law. The Chinese investigation centres on allegations that millions of pounds were funnelled through travel agencies to bribe doctors and health officials over six years, and has seen senior staff detained in the country in recent days. Glaxo fell 21p to 1694p as it said it will cut prices for Chinese consumers to make its medicines more affordable.

Miners Fresnillo and Randgold Resources made the only notable gains. Randgold was 252p higher to 4777p, a gain of nearly six per cent, while Mexican gold and silver miner Fresnillo advanced more than three per cent, or 35p to 1064p.

Filtronic, the maker of microwave electronics products for the wireless telecoms market, posted a significant increase in operating profits to £3.1m for the year to May 31, helped by demand from operators involved in services for the 4G mobile phone sector.

It was a performance described as superb by Panmure Gordon stockbrokers, but shares still fell 2p to 65p.