This Week's Market Movers

London shares rose in a holiday-shortened trading week. Barclays appoints an investment banker as its new chairman, Tesco launches a catalogue to rival Argos, and WH Smiths does the splits.

London shares rose in a holiday-shortened trading week with pharmaceuticals and banks hauling the FTSE higher. At mid-morning on Friday, the benchmark index was up 42 points to 5,920.

Biggest Movers in the FTSE 350 (as at Friday 10am)

GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) looked sprightly this week ahead of key data on two of its top medicines. Its shares hardened 4% to 1,494p as investors await the release of data on Advair and Avandia at two European medical conferences in September.

Banks were in fine fettle too amidst persistent talk of consolidation within the sector. Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) added 1% to 1,787p, and Bradford & Bingley (LSE: BB.) took on 3% to 457p. Barclays (LSE: BARC) gained 2% to 660p as the UK's No.3 bank appointed Lazard's Marcus Agius as successor to outgoing chairman Matt Barrett.

BP (LSE: BP.) , however, was under the weather, down 1% to 597p, following news of a US probe. BP said it is being investigated over allegations of possible manipulation of gasoline prices. Elsewhere, Hunting (LSE: HTG) scampered 14% to 443p after the oil services outfit posted an 85% jump in mid-year profits.

Tesco (LSE: TSCO) was in good form this week, up 3% to 379p, as it prepares to expands its non-food retailing division. The supermarket is set to launch a catalogue and internet service offering some 8,000 items to rival market leader Argos, which is due to demerge from GUS (LSE: GUS) later this year.

On the other side of the high street Signet (LSE: SIG) dropped 7% to 108p as hopes of a break-up faded. The jeweller, which posted in-line interim results, said its UK business which includes H Samuel and Ernest Jones is not for sale. Meanwhile, WH Smith has spilt into two separate entities -- WH Smith (LSE: SMWH) , which will own the retail operation, and Smiths News (LSE: NWS) , the newspaper and magazine distributor.

Sticking with newspapers, Johnston Press (LSE: JPR) jumped 8% to 414p even though first-half profits fell. The regional newspaper publisher said advertising revenues will remain tough but it was comfortable with meeting full-year profits estimates.

Whitbread (LSE: WTB) dipped 1% to 1,216p after a mixed trading update. The company said both its budget hotel chain Premier Travel Inn and Costa coffee shops performed strongly, although sales fell at its Pub and Restaurant division. Elsewhere, London Clubs International (LSE: LCI) surged 35% to 131p after accepting a cash offer from Harrah Entertainment (NYSE: HET) , and leisure group Rank (LSE: RNK) has agreed to sell its high-end casino the Clermont Club to BIL International for £31m. Rank, which also reported a fall in underlying mid-year profits this week, slipped 2% to 207p