Assetco Share News (ASTO)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in London have opened slightly lower Wednesday, as the drum beat of a possible Greek debt default undermines market confidence.

Some major UK company updates also have been taken badly. Burberry, down 5.3%, and SSE, down 1.1%, are among the leading blue-chip fallers after releasing annual results. Hargreaves Lansdown shares are down 1.2%, despite reporting an increase in assets under administration in the opening four months of 2015.

Still to come are Bank of England meeting minutes and, after the London close, the same from the US Federal Reserve.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 6,990.75
FTSE 250: down 0.2% at 18,142.68
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 763.14
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Hang Seng: down 0.5% at 27,556.67
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.9% at 20,196.56
DJIA: closed up 0.1% at 18,312.39
S&P 500: closed down 0.1% at 2,127.83
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GBP: down at USD1.5489
EUR: down at USD1.1086

GOLD: down at USD1,206.40 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD64.87 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Wednesday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in BST)

09:30 UK Bank of England MPC Minutes
10:00 EU Construction Output
10:00 Switzerland ZEW Survey
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
13:30 Canada Wholesale Sales
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks
19:00 US Federal Reserve FOMC Minutes
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The Greek government's parliamentary speaker said the struggling nation will not be able to make a payment to the International Monetary Fund on June 5 if there is no deal with its creditors by then, Reuters reports. "Now is the moment that negotiations are coming to a head. Now is the moment of truth, on June 5," Nikos Filis told ANT1 television. "If there is no deal by then that will address the current funding problem, they won't get any money."
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Germany's producer prices declined at a slightly faster-than-expected pace in April, figures from Destatis showed. The producer price index fell 1.5% year-over-year in April, just above economists' expectations for a 1.4% decrease. In March, prices had fallen 1.7%. Producer prices have been falling since August 2013.
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EU leaders are set to meet with their counterparts from six eastern countries in Riga this week, amid concern that the meeting could further inflame tensions with Russia. Their last meeting, held in Vilnius in 2013, triggered the current crisis in Ukraine, after the country's former president Viktor Yanukovych backed out of a deal on closer ties with the European Union. On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the EU during a trip to Brussels against steps that could harm Russian interests, adding that the bloc's relations with its eastern neighbours must not have negative consequences for Moscow. The EU's Eastern Partnership programme aims to encourage six former Soviet states - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine - to undertake reforms, in return for closer relations and economic benefits.
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Japan's gross domestic product climbed 0.6% on quarter in the first quarter of 2015, the Cabinet Office said in a preliminary reading. That topped expectations for an increase of 0.4%, and it was up from the downwardly revised 0.3% rate of growth in the fourth quarter (originally 0.4%). On an annualized yearly basis, GDP climbed 2.4% - also exceeding forecasts for an increase of 1.6% following the downwardly revised 1.5% gain in the three months prior (originally 1.1%).
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Iraqi authorities bowed to pressure from leaders in the western al-Anbar province and agreed to allow thousands of families fleeing Islamic State to enter the capital Baghdad. A security source told dpa that a bridge across the Euphrates river near Baghdad, where refugees have camped out for days since the jihadists captured al-Anbar's provincial capital Ramadi, would be opened to all civilians. Security forces had imposed strict security checks at the crossing, limiting the numbers of fleeing residents who have been able to cross, for fear that militants might infiltrate the capital.
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Efforts to reach 16 million Yemenis in need of aid were faltering, the United Nations said, as the capital Sana'a was hit by Saudi-led airstrikes for the first time since a five-day truce with Houthi rebels ended. Aid organizations have had to "stop delivery of some assistance activities initiated during the pause due to increased insecurity and limited humanitarian access," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. The UN also said it was pushing for renewed talks between the warring parties, as Arab media reported a peace conference could take place in Geneva on May 28.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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GOLDMAN CUTS ABERDEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT TO NEUTRAL (BUY) - TARGET 460 (550) PENCE
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JPMORGAN CUTS OLD MUTUAL TO 'NEUTRAL' ('OVERWEIGHT') - TARGET 243 PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Marks & Spencer Group reported growth in profit in its recently-ended financial year, although it was lower than the market consensus figures the retailer provided, as UK sales increased but international sales declined. The clothing and food retailer reported a pretax profit for the year ended March 28 of GBP600.0 million, up 3.4% from the GBP580.4 million reported the year before. M&S will pay a total dividend of 18 pence, up 5.9% from the 17p paid the prior year.
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Burberry Group reported growth in profit in its recently-ended financial year as demand for its signature trench coat, cashmere scarves and ponchos contributed to a rise in sales. The retailer reported pretax profit in the year ending March 31 of GBP445 million, up from GBP444 million, while revenue increased 8% to GBP2.5 billion from GBP2.3 billion. Burberry will pay a dividend of 35.2 pence, up 10% on the 32p paid the year before.
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High street retailer Next has been hit with a GBP22.4 million tax bill after a court found the company had diverted profits made in the UK offshore in order to avoid paying tax, the BBC reported. The court ruled Next diverted profits made in the UK to foreign subsidiaries in order to claim tax relief on overseas profits, using a so-called "rate-booster" scheme. Some companies were able to exploit rules designed to prevent the double taxation of companies by using artificial arrangements described by HM Revenue & Customs as "complex circular movements of money between companies in the same group, so they can claim there has been double taxation."
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Hargreaves Lansdown reported an increase in assets under administration in the opening four months of 2015, bolstered by net inflows of GBP2.75 billion in a period including the crucial end of the tax year in the UK. In a statement, the retail fund supermarket said assets under administration amounted to GBP55.3 billion at the end of April, an increase from the GBP49.1 billion recorded at the end of 2014.
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Antofagasta Chairman Jean-Paul Luksic reiterated the company is aiming to produce around 695,000 tonnes of copper in 2015 as it continues to focus on reducing costs following on from the company's fall in earnings in 2014 amid a drop in copper prices. Luksic is due to speak at the company's annual general meeting later Wednesday, and will announce the company is aiming to produce the 695,000 tonnes of copper at a cash cost of USD1.40 per pound of copper, which would be lower than in 2014 when its cash cost averaged USD1.43 per pound. Antofagasta said it will continue to try to reduce the cash cost. That 695,000 tonne figure was originally announced in April after the company reduced its guidance from its full-year results in March, when it had said it would aim to produce around 710,000 tonnes of copper.
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SSE reported annual results that were in line with analyst expectations, with profit experiencing a lift, as all of the power company's divisions remained profitable despite its wholesale division experiencing a fall in profit. The FTSE 100 company reported an adjusted pretax profit, or before exceptional items and remeasurements, of GBP1.56 billion for the year ended March 31, up 0.9% year on year from GBP1.55 billion a year. SSE raised its dividend for the full year by 2% to 88.4 pence per share.
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Swiss bank UBS is to pay USD545 million to authorities in the US to settle an investigation into the alleged rigging of foreign exchange benchmarks, the first of a slew of fines due to be handed down to banks in the probe. The fine includes a USD342 million payment to the Federal Reserve, UBS said, though it will not be paying any fine to the Department of Justice. Another USD203 million penalty has been imposed after the bank's role in the foreign exchange rigging scandal breached an earlier agreement it had made with prosecutors in the US over the alleged rigging of Libor. The new settlement means UBS will also plead guilty to rigging Libor. UBS is one of five banks due to reach settlements with regulators in the US on Wednesday over the foreign exchange rigging probe, with Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Barclays also expected to announce settlements later.
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HSBC Holdings' plans to ring-fence its retail banking operations have hit a hitch after the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority indicated that a possible candidate to chair the ring-fenced bank wouldn't be able to take on the role, Sky News reported. HSBC's indicated to the regulator that it could want the chief executive of HSBC Bank PLC, Alan Keir, to become the chairman of the ring-fenced bank, Sky News said.
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Meanwhile, HSBC is to begin charging clients on deposits in some European currencies, the Financial Times reported. The move comes as banks look to protect their profit margins amid low or even negative interest rates set by central banks.
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The Italian antitrust authority has placed under investigation the Lega Serie A, two pay TV networks and a marketing company over an alleged scheme to lower television broadcast rights, the ANSA news agency reported. Police searched the offices of the Lega, Sky Italia, Mediaset and its controlled company, and media marketing firm Infront Italy earlier in the day. The searches stemmed from an investigation that the antitrust authority launched into last June's bid, which was won by Sky Italia and Mediaset. Sky Italia is owned by the UK's Sky.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Intermediate Capital Group said it will return GBP300 million in capital to shareholders through a special dividend, as it reported higher assets under management and profit over its last financial year. In a statement, the specialist asset manager said it made a GBP178.5 million pretax profit in the year ended March 31, compared with GBP164.4 million in the prior year. Assets under management increased to EUR18.0 billion from EUR12.98 billion as fundraising inflows more than offset the outflows from realisations.
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Thomas Cook Group reported a narrowed pretax loss in the first half of its financial year, even though revenue fell, although it said current trading is performing above the levels of this time last year. The travel operator reported a pretax loss of GBP303 million in the six months to March 31, narrower than the GBP366 million reported in the same period the prior year. Revenue fell to GBP2.7 billion from GBP3 billion, although it did increase on a like-for-like basis by 1.2% as a result of growing new product and long haul sales.
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Pennon Group said it had delivered a "resilient" set of results for the last financial year after reporting a rise in pretax profit as both its South West Water business and Viridor waste to energy business experienced a lift in earnings. The FTSE 100 company reported a pretax profit before exceptional items of GBP210.7 million in the year ended March 31, up 1.6% from GBP207.3 million a year earlier. Pennon increased its dividend by 4.9% to 31.80 pence per share and reiterated that its dividend policy is to grow year on year by a minimum of 4% of retail price index inflation until 2020.
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Zoopla Property Group reported higher profit for the first half of its financial year, as revenue was buoyed by higher revenue per agent and higher advertising revenue, and the company said it had stemmed the loss in agents that had been caused by the opening of a new rival property portal. The company, which is set to expand from its property sales and rentals portal into utility and financial services price comparison by buying uSwitch for up to GBP190 million, reported a pretax profit of GBP18.4 million for the six months to end-March, up from GBP16.3 million a year earlier, as revenue rose to GBP42.0 million from GBP38.3 million. Zoopla declared a maiden interim dividend of 1.0 pence a share.
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Soft drinks company Britvic said its pretax profit improved in the first half of its financial year despite a fall in revenue following an improvement in its gross margin, and the group hiked its dividend on the back of a confident outlook for the year. Britvic said its pretax profit in the 28 weeks to April 12 was GBP51 million, up from GBP45.3 million in the 28 weeks to April 13, 2014. On the back of the rise in profit, the group hiked its interim dividend by 9.8% to 6.7 pence per share, up from 6.1% for the first half of 2014.
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Carbon and ceramic products manufacturer Morgan Advanced Materials affirmed its full-year expectations after saying trading in the first four months has been in line with its forecasts. The company says its like-for-like revenue in the four months to the end of April rose 1.9%, with its year-to-date book-to-bill ratio at the end of April at 1.07. Its outstanding order book was around 8% higher than at the same time a year earlier on a constant currency basis.
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Chipmaker CSR said trading in the first quarter of its financial year was in line with its expectations and said outlook for the first half also looks to be on track. The FTSE 250-listed company, which is set to be acquired by US rival Qualcomm in a USD1.6 billion deal set to complete in the summer, said its takeover is still subject to approval by Chinese authorities but said all other conditions for the deal have been met.
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Invesco Asset Management confirmed that it sold more shares than expected in science and technology development and commercialisation company Allied Minds. Invesco Asset Management said on Tuesday it intended to sell 13 million shares in Allied Minds, but on Wednesday said it has sold 16 million shares in the company at 565 pence per share, raising GBP90.4 million.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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French cable and telecommunications group Altice is in advanced talks to buy the seventh-largest US cable operator Suddenlink Communications and is also eyeing an acquisition of the second-largest US cable operator Time Warner Cable Inc, according to media reports. An acquisition of Suddenlink Communications, which could be announced this week, could reportedly be valued at USD8 billion to USD10 billion, including debt. Meanwhile, Altice is said to have made initial contact with Time Warner Cable. Altice is controlled by French billionaire Patrick Drahi, who once worked for US cable tycoon John Malone.
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Under pressure from US transportation regulators, the Japanese manufacturer Takata acknowledged a safety defect in airbags it supplied to 11 automakers and agreed to a recall of nearly 34 million automobiles in the US. The recall greatly expands the recall from last year, making it the largest ever US automotive recall.
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United Technologies Corp is talking to potential buyers for its Sikorsky Aircraft business, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter said. According to report, Boeing, Airbus Group and Lockheed Martin are among the companies exploring bids for Sikorsky or, alternatively, for a minority stake. Bids are due later this month. Sikorsky is one of the world's largest helicopter makers with USD7.5 billion in sales last year to a range of military and civilian buyers. The company could fetch around USD10 billion in a full sale, the report said.
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Lafarge presented to employee representatives the proposed organization of central functions in the context of the creation of LafargeHolcim. The proposed new organization of central functions would result in about 380 net job losses, with 166 of these in France (Paris and Lyon). Lafarge noted that the proposed merger will not affect employment in Lafarge's operational functions in France, which employ more than 4,500 people.
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Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Antofagasta
Marshalls
CSR
Foxtons Group
Mercantile Investment Trust
Ophir Energy
Playtech
Polymetal International
Michelmersh
Revolymer
StatPro Group
Circassia Pharmaceuticals
Vislink
21st Century Technolgy
UK Oil and Gas Investments
ICG-Longbow Senior Secured UK Property Debt Investments
AssetCo
Circle Holdings
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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