ATK.L Share News (ATK)

LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares have been buoyed Wednesday by the biggest M&A agreement in London in some time, as BG Group has agreed to be acquired by Royal Dutch Shell, with the FTSE 100 close to breaking back above 7,000 points.

BG shares are up 37% at the open to 1,245.00 pence per share, compared to the 1,350.00p value of the Shell offer. Shell 'B' shares, which form part of the offer terms, are down 5.8%.

The read across from the deal sees shares of fellow oil major BP up 4.2%, the second biggest gainer in the FTSE 100.

In other M&A-related movement, shares of Sky are up 3.7%, the third biggest riser, after French media giant Vivendi denied media speculation that it might seek to acquire the pay-TV provider.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.5% at 6,997.19
FTSE 250: up 0.3% at 17,575.68
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 723.50
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Hang Seng: up 3.2% at 26,072.65
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.8% at 19,789.81
DJIA: closed flat at 17,875.42
S&P 500: closed down 0.2% at 2,076.33
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.4878
EUR-USD: up at USD1.0854

GOLD: up at USD1,210.71 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD58.41 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)

10:00 EU Retail Sales
10:30 UK BOE Credit Conditions Survey
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
14:30 US Fed's William Dudley speech
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks
19:00 US FOMC Minutes
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Germany's factory orders declined unexpectedly in February, figures from Destatis showed. Factory orders dropped a seasonally and working-day-adjusted 0.9% month-over-month in February, defying economists' expectations for a 1.5% increase. In January, orders had fallen 2.6%, which was revised from a 3.9% decrease.
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FRANCE FEB TRADE DEFICIT EUR3.449B VS EUR3.710B IN JAN, CONSENSUS EUR3.8B; FEBRUARY EXPORTS +1.4%; FEBRUARY IMPORTS +0.6%
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Following the conclusion of a two-day Monetary Policy Board meeting, the Bank of Japan announced its decision to maintain status quo position with respect to its monetary policy. As expected, the central bank decided to conduct money market operations such that the monetary base increases at an annual pace of JPY80 trillion by an 8-1 vote.
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Japan posted a current account surplus of JPY1.440 trillion yen in February, the Ministry of Finance said. The headline figure exceeded forecasts for a surplus of JPY1.196 trillion following the JPY61.4 billion surplus in January. The trade balance reflected a deficit of JPY143.1 billion - beating forecasts for a shortfall of JPY239.9 billion following the JPY864.2 billion deficit in the previous month. Exports added 0.4% on year to JPY5.959 trillion, slowing from the 16% surge a month earlier. Imports tumbled an annual 6.2% to JPY6.102 trillion after falling 8.9% in January.
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A measure of peoples' assessment of the Japanese economy improved for the fourth straight month in March, survey data from the Cabinet Office showed. The current index of the Economy Watchers' survey climbed more-than-expected to 52.2 in March from 50.1 in the previous month. Economists had forecast a 50.5 reading for the month. Any reading above 50 indicates optimism and a score below 50 suggests pessimism. The latest reading was the highest since March 2014, when the score was 57.9.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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TRADERS: CREDIT SUISSE RAISES EXPERIAN TO 'OUTPERFORM' ('NEUTRAL')
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TRADERS: NUMIS CUTS TATE & LYLE TO 'REDUCE' ('HOLD')
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TRADERS: HSBC RAISES STAGECOACH TO 'BUY' ('HOLD') - TARGET 400 (395) PENCE
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TRADERS: HSBC CUTS FIRSTGROUP PRICE TARGET TO 110 (120) PENCE - 'HOLD'
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TRADERS: NOMURA RAISES GO-AHEAD GROUP TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL')
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TRADERS: HSBC CUTS NATIONAL EXPRESS TO 'HOLD' (OVERWEIGHT')
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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FTSE 100-listed oil and gas companies Royal Dutch Shell and BG Group said they have reached an agreement on a cash and shares takeover of BG by Shell, valuing BG around GBP47 billion. Under the terms of the deal, BG shareholders will get 383 pence in cash plus 0.4454 of a Shell B share per BG share. Based on the 90 trading day volume weighted average price of 2,170.3 pence per Shell 'B' Share on April 7, the total value of the deal is 1,350.00 pence per BG share, a premium of around 50% to their closing price on Tuesday. BG shareholders will own around 19% of the combined company. Shell said it expects the combination of the two companies to improve its global liquefied natural gas operations, particularly in Australia, and its deep water operations, particularly in Brazil, and Shell has forecast that it will generate pre-tax synergies of around USD2.5 billion per year and said there are further "significant" opportunities.
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Budget carrier easyJet said its passenger numbers and load factor both improved in March year-on-year, while Aer Lingus Group also said its passenger numbers increased and its load factor improved in the month. EasyJet said its passenger numbers rose 7.5% year-on-year in March to hit 5.5 million, up from 5.1 million a year earlier. Its load factor also improved in March, rising 1.1 percentage points to 92.6% from 91.5%. Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus echoed the improvements shown by easyJet, with traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, rising 10.6%. Aer Lingus also said its load factor improved in March, up 4.4 percentage points to 79.1% from 74.7% a year earlier. Aer Lingus' passenger numbers in the month rose 2.3%, though are down 0.8% in the year to date. International Consolidated Airlines Group SA, owner of British Airways and Iberia, is expected to provide its own March traffic statistics later Wednesday.
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French media giant Vivendi has denied media speculation that it might seek to acquire pay-TV provider Sky, Bloomberg reported. According to the report, a representative of the Paris-based company said it was looking at Sky as one of many options to expand its own TV business Canal Plus. A report that appeared in the media earlier had said that Vivendi was considering the deal after reviewing targets in Turkey and other parts of Europe.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Centamin said production from the Sukari gold mine fell quarter-on-quarter as expected as it begins mining the upper portions of the open pit, but reiterated its full-year guidance. The gold miner said total gold production from the Sukari gold mine in Egypt in the first quarter of 2015 totalled 108,233 ounces of gold, which is up 46% from a year earlier but down 16% quarter-on-quarter. Centamin said production in the first half of the year will be reduced as mining progresses through the upper portions of the next stage of open pit development.
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WS Atkins said it traded well in the fourth quarter of its financial year and expects to meet its expectations for the financial year to the end of March on an underlying basis. The FTSE 250-listed engineering and design consultancy said its performance in the UK improved in the second half, following a mixed first half of the year. The company reached resolution on its contract variation negotiations in its rail business in the second half, which helped boost its regional cash performance in the period. It has also completed the transition to a new operating structure in the UK, focused on four business units, with the implementation made effective from April 1.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Trinity Exploration and Production said it has launched a strategic review of the company after receiving a number of conditional proposals which could lead to a merger, the sale or farm-out of some of the company's assets or the sale of the company. Following on from the approaches, Trinity said it has decided to enter discussions with interested parties under a formal sale process framework in order to enable discussions about a potential merger on a confidential basis, it said in a statement.
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Robert Walters said group net fee income rose in the first quarter, despite taking a currency hit from the weaker euro, as the recruitment company's performance in the UK and internationally boosted its results and it said it expects full-year profit to beat market expectations. The company said group net fee income in the first quarter to the end of March was up 12% to GBP53.9 million from GBP48.1 million a year earlier.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Oilfield services provider Halliburton said it will separately sell its Fixed Cutter and Roller Cone Drill Bits, Directional Drilling and Logging-While-Drilling/Measurement-While-Drilling businesses in connection with its pending acquisition of Baker Hughes Inc. "Although we would prefer to retain these assets, we will be required to divest some of our overlapping businesses to obtain competition authorities' approvals as anticipated when we announced the Halliburton-Baker Hughes transaction," said CEO Dave Lesar in a statement. In mid-November 2014, Halliburton agreed to buy smaller rival Baker Hughes in a cash and stock deal valued at USD34.6 billion.
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Air France-KLM said its traffic in March, measured in terms of revenue pax-kilometers, edged up 0.1% to 19.783 billion from 19.762 billion in the previous year. Available seat-kilometers, a gauge for capacity, edged down 0.2% to 23.637 billion from 23.683 billion in 2014. Load factor grew 0.2 percentage points to 83.7% from 83.4% reported in March 2014. Passengers carried rose 0.4% to 6.91 million from 6.882 million in the previous year.
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Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Daniel Stewart Securities
Zambeef Products
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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