Barclays Share News (BARC)

LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares have started the week solidly higher Monday, as market participants gain increasing confidence that global geo-political tensions will be contained.

Bovis Homes leads FTSE 350 gainers, up 3.1%, after it tripled its interim dividend on a more than doubling of pretax profit, while saying the UK housing market continues to perform "robustly".

Goldman Sachs has added ARM Holdings to its Conviction Buy List with a target of 1,400 pence. ARM shares are up 1.4% at 920p at the open.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.8% at 6,739.29
FTSE 250: up 0.7% at 15,778.71
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.3% at 758.31
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Hang Seng: down 0.1% at 24,922.15
Nikkei 225: closed flat at 15,322.60
DJIA: closed down 0.3% at 16,662.91
S&P 500: closed flat at 1,955.06
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.6735
EUR-USD: down at USD1.3387

GOLD: down at USD1,300.62 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD102.59 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Monday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times British Summer Time)

UK 30-y Bond Auction
10:00 EU Trade Balance
15:00 US NAHB Housing Market Index
16:30 US 3-Month and 6-Month Bill Auction
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The Bank of England would not wait for real wages to rise before raising bank rate from its current 0.50% level, Governor Mark Carney said in an interview. "We have to have the confidence that real wages are going to be growing gradually" before raising rates, he told the Sunday Times. "We don't have to wait for the fact of that turn to do so," he added. In the quarterly Inflation Report, released on August 13, the bank said future developments on wages would have a greater influence on interest rate decision. The bank suggested that the rates will not rise soon as wage growth remain subdued and the economy faces challenges from external environment.
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The average asking price for a house in the UK was down 2.9% on month to GBP262,401, property tracking website Rightmove said. That's the largest monthly decline ever observed in August, the site noted, and it follows a 0.8% contraction in July. On a yearly basis, house prices were up 5.3% - slowing from the 6.5% increase in the previous month. A slowing market in London was the main cause for the decline, tumbling 5.9% on month but still adding 10.3% on year. The North was the only region to see an increase in prices in August, advancing 0.5% on month.
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Kurdish Peshmerga forces, aided by US airstrikes, Sunday regained control of Iraq's strategic Mosul Dam from the Islamic State militants, media reports said, citing Kurdish officials. "The Peshmerga troops have imposed full control on the dam," the independent Iraqi site Alsumaria news quoted an unnamed Peshmerga official as saying."The US warplanes continue to bombard positions of the Islamic State insurgents around the dam." US Central Command confirmed that it conducted 14 strikes against Islamic State forces near Mosul Dam on Sunday "using a mix of figher, bomber attack and remotely piloted aircraft."
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Pro-Russian separatists claimed Saturday that they had opened up a supply line between the besieged eastern Ukraine areas of Donetsk and Luhansk. Their next aim in fighting with Ukrainian government forces is to break the army blockade of the city of Luhansk, separatist leader Andrei Sakhartshenko told Russia's Interfax news agency. Residents in Donetsk city reported heavy fire in numerous areas of the metropolis of 1 million people. Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council reported from Kiev that the military operations would continue for some time because the taking of areas held by separatists could not be accomplished in a few days.
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New home prices in most Chinese cities fell in July, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Average new house prices in 64 out of the total 70 cities declined in July from the previous month. Property prices in Hangzhou dropped the most, by 2.5% month-over-month in July. Prices in major cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen fell 1.4% and 0.6%, respectively.
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Foreign direct investment into China logged a double-digit decline in July, the Ministry of Commerce said. FDI was down 16.95% in July from the prior year to USD7.81 billion. In June, FDI had gained 0.2% annually.
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Confidence among Chinese businesses increased in August, the results of a survey by MNI Indicators showed. The MNI business sentiment index, a measure of current business expectations, for China rose to 59 in August from 58.2 in July. The index has been expanding since January 2009. A reading above 50 signals expansion.
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The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, on Sunday held talks in Tehran with the Iranian leadership on the country's nuclear programme. Amano met Iranian President Hassan Rowhani for the first time, as well as Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the country's atomic agency chief, Ali Akbar Salehi. Zarif told Amano that Iran was determined to cooperate with the IAEA, Press TV reported.
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A group of 35 people found in a container at a British port are Sikhs from Afghanistan, Essex police confirmed on Sunday. The 35 men, women and children - many of whom were suffering from dehydration and hypothermia, and one of whom died as a result - were released from the container on Sunday after arriving at Tilbury Docks via Belgium. They were brought to a nearby hospital for medical treatment, but no one was in critical condition.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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GOLDMAN RAISES ARM TO 'CONVICTION BUY LIST' ('BUY') - TARGET 1400 PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Rio Tinto Group PLC confirmed it is considering options for its stake in the operator of a mine in Papua New Guinea, which has a potential gold and copper resource worth over USD60 billion. Rio said it would review all options on its 53.83% stake in Bougainville Copper Ltd, the operator of the Paguna mine on Bougainville Island. The mining group said the stake review comes in the wake of new mining legislation passed earlier in August by the Bougainville government. Under the changes, the power to regulate mining activities on Bougainville passed from Papua New Guinea's central government to the island's autonomous legislator. When the island's government passed its new mining act, Rio was stripped of all exploration and mining licences, prompting the mining group to start taking legal advice on its stake.
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Prudential PLC will spend around GBP100 million on developing further business initiatives in the UK as the group attempts to offset a drop in annuity sales as a result of the overhaul of the pension system in Britain, the Financial Times reported. The investment, which the life insurer is set to make in the next two years, is being led by Jackie Hunt, drafted into the company from rival Standard Life PLC a year ago to head up Prudential's UK business. It will cover spending on developing an online investment platform and Prudential ISAs, the FT said, citing a plan outlined to investors.
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Barclays PLC is being investigated for failing to keep clients' money separate from its own, the Financial Times reported online on Friday. The latest probe by the Financial Conduct Authority could result in the bank incurring a financial penalty, the report said, citing people familiar with the situation. FT said that Barclays and the FCA declined to comment.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Bovis Homes Group PLC raised its dividend threefold, after pretax profit more than doubled in the first half, as the UK housing market continues to perform "robustly". The Kent-based firm increased its interim dividend to 12.0 pence from 4.0 pence, as pretax profit rose to GBP49.4 million for the six months ended June 30, from GBP18.6 million a year earlier. Revenue jumped 75% to GBP322.1 million from GBP184.4 million a year earlier. FTSE 250-listed its targeting a full year dividend of 35 pence per share which would be a significant increase from the 13.5 pence it shelled out at the end of 2013.
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Petra Diamonds Ltd said it expects an increase in diamond production in the coming year and said it remains on track to meet its five-year target, though it said capital expenditure in its South African operations will rise in 2015. The FTSE 250-listed diamond mining firm said it expects production in the year to June 30, 2015 to hit 3.2 million carats, up 3.2% on the 3.1 million carats produced in the year to June 30.
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Carillion PLC, which is at loggerheads with Balfour Beatty PLC over their possible merger, on Monday said its cost-base savings outlined last week has not been audited in the technical sense, but rather an independent accounting firm provided public assurance that the cost-base of the combined group could be reduced by at least GBP175 million a year by the end of 2016. Monday's statement follows a remark by Carillion Chairman Philip Green' in the Sunday Times. Green said: "Our synergy numbers have been audited, and at GBP1.5 billion it is virtually the same as the current market value of either company." In a separate announcement Monday, Carillion said it has signed a GBP90 million contract with HUB Residential to deliver a residential development project in London's Royal Docks.
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Molten metal engineering company Vesuvius PLC said Monday it has signed binding agreements to acquire two technical services businesses in the US and Brazil for a total of around GBP30 million. Vesuvius said it expects to complete the acquisitions by the end of the year, and said both are expected to add to earnings in 2015 but not make a meaningful contribution to its 2014 earnings.
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Amlin PLC reported an 8.0% fall in first half pretax profit, hit by a GBP24.6 million foreign exchange swing, largely on the weakening of the dollar, as well as a 52% increase in large catastrophe losses.  In a statement, the insurer and reinsurer reported a GBP148.5 million pretax profit in the six months ended June 30, compared with GBP161.4 million in the corresponding period last year. Amlin increased its interim dividend 3.8% to 8.1 pence from 7.8p.
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UDG Healthcare PLC said it has sold its 50% stake in UniDrug Distribution Group Limited to its joint venture partner Alliance Boots in a cash deal worth GBP66 million or EUR82 million. UDG said the disposal proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes and to pay down debt.
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WS Atkins PLC said it has reached an agreement to sell off its Polish business to a Norwegian consultancy and design company in a GBP2.8 million cash deal. The engineering and consulting firm said it has sold the business to Multiconsult AS in a deal that is set to complete in September 2014. The Polish business employs 77 people and reported revenue of GBP5.0 million in the year to March 31, 2014, said WS Atkins.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Sprue Aegis PLC said it expects its full-year results, before exceptional listing costs of GBP500,000 in the first half, will beat market expectations as its order book has grown "considerably" since June 30. The home safety product supplier said this growth has been driven by a "significant" increase in smoke detector orders in the French market.
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Salamander Energy PLC said it has plugged and abandoned the North Kendang-2 exploration well in the North Kutei basin in offshore East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The company said it had completed drilling operations at the well, which reached a total depth of 2,569 metres. Whilst drilling encountered two intervals bearing hydrocarbons, the volume of hydrocarbons encountered was considered to be sub-commercial.
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Kingspan Group PLC said it has entered into an agreement with Pactiv LLC to acquire its US building insulation business. Low-energy building solutions said that Pactiv's building insulation division produces a range of extruded polystyrene insulation products under the GreenGuard brand which it supplies throughout the USA from its manufacturing base in Virginia. Kingspan said the enterprise value of the business is USD82 million, of which USD72 million is payable by Kingspan in cash on completion plus USD10 million of working capital. Gross assets being acquired amount to USD30 million. The agreement is subject to local approval of licence and permit transfers.
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Eden Research Appoints Sean Smith As CEO
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Monday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Chariot Oil & Gas
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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