BP Share News (BP.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - London has seen a flat open Friday, following gains on Wall Street and a calm end-of-week trading session in Asia.

Miners were leading FTSE 100 gains, with Glencore, Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Antofagasta the top four risers. Kingfisher was the fifth best early performer among blue chips, up 1.5%, after being raised to Buy from Neutral by UBS.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.2% at 6,145.92
FTSE 250: up 0.1% at 17,034.92
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 734.60
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Hang Seng: flat at 21,567.95
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.2% at 18,264.22
DJIA: closed up 0.5% at 16,330.40
S&P 500: closed up 0.5% at 1,952.29
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GBP: flat at USD1.5444
EUR: up at USD1.1295

GOLD: down at USD1,110.13 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD48.20 a barrel

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

EU EcoFin Meeting

09:00 Italy Industrial Output
09:30 UK Consumer Inflation Expectations
13:30 US Producer Price Index
15:00 US Reuters/Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index Preliminary
19:00 US Monthly Budget Statement
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German consumer price inflation remained stable as initially estimated in August, final data from Destatis showed. The consumer price index rose 0.2% year-on-year, the same as in July. The rate matched the preliminary estimate published on August 28. The measure climbed for a seventh month running. On a monthly basis, consumer prices remained flat in August after rising 0.2% in July. Food prices increased 0.8% and clothing and footwear by 1.4%. Meanwhile, energy prices plunged 7.6%. Meanwhile, Germany's wholesale prices declined at a faster pace in August, figures from Destatis showed. Wholesale prices dropped 1.1% year-over-year in August, following a 0.5% stable rate of decrease in the previous month. The wholesale price index has been falling since July 2013.
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Japan's business survey index of large manufacturers turned positive in the three months ended September, while future situation is expected to weaken, the quarterly survey by the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet office showed. The Business Survey Index turned to a positive reading of 11.0 in the three-month period to September from -6.0 in the previous three months.
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Singaporeans went to the polls Friday following a fiercely contested campaign in which opposition parties sought to break the city-state's unbroken one-party dominance. The People's Action Party, which has governed Singapore since 1959, is expected to win another majority, but opposition parties called for voters to increase their support for more diverse voices as a check on the ruling party.
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Hungary's cabinet will consider declaring a state of emergency to deal with the surge of migrants streaming in from the south, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said. The measure, proposed by the Interior Ministry, will be discussed in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Janos Lazar said. Orban, a conservative who has maintained a hostile stance towards migrants, has said that Hungary is unwilling to accept Muslim migrants and ordered the construction of a fence along the country's 175-kilometre border with Serbia.
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An effort to scuttle the international agreement on Iran's nuclear programme failed in the US Senate as President Barack Obama's Democrats blocked a resolution disapproving the deal. The 58-42 vote to advance the legislation fell short of the three-fifths supermajority needed in the 100-member chamber. US lawmakers have until September 17 to weigh in on the Iran deal. The lower House of Representatives is still debating the agreement, but the Senate's action effectively ensures that the deal will stand.
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The US marks 14 years since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with ceremonies Friday including a memorial service at the newly opened visitor centre at the rural Pennsylvania site where one of four hijacked airliners crashed. Moments of silence will be held nationwide to commemorate the deadliest terrorist attacks ever on US soil, which killed 2,977 people.
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The Brazilian government plans to cut back spending even further, Finance Minister Joaquim Levy said, hours after the rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the country's bonds to junk. "The government must cut spending and will do so, yes, more than it has done in the past and with smart management and tools," Levy said in an interview with broadcaster TV Globo. "If necessary, we must be willing to make sacrifices so that we can all get the economy to grow again," he said.
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A new round of Yemeni peace talks will be held next week in the region with the participation of the government, Houthi rebels and the General People's Congress, the United Nations said. The talks, for which a date and venue will be announced later, are to focus on forging a cease-fire agreement and resuming a peaceful political transition, according to a statement by Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, UN special envoy on Yemen.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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EXANE BNP RAISES DIAGEO TO 'OUTPERFORM' ('NEUTRAL') - PRICE TARGET 1900 (1720) PENCE
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JEFFERIES CUTS BP TO 'HOLD' ('BUY') - PRICE TARGET 360 (480) PENCE
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GOLDMAN RAISES BP TO 'NEUTRAL' ('SELL') - PRICE TARGET 367 (380) PENCE
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UBS RAISES RIO TINTO TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - PRICE TARGET 2850 PENCE
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UBS RAISES KINGFISHER TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 400 (360) PENCE
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UBS RAISES AMLIN TO 'NEUTRAL' ('SELL') - TARGET 670 (440) PENCE
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TRADERS: JEFFERIES RAISES TULLOW OIL TO 'HOLD' ('UNDERPERF.'); TARGET 191 PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Outsourcer G4S said it has secured a USD187.0 million contract to provide security services to Basra Gas Co in Iraq and to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Afghanistan. G4S said the Basra contract will start in January 2016 and includes a two-year extension option which would increase the total value of the deal to USD270.0 million. In addition, the company has renewed a contract to supply security services to the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Afghanistan. Including the two-year extension option on the deal, the contract is worth a total of GBP100.0 million.
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Aerospace and engineering group Rolls-Royce Holdings said it has won a contract from French airplane maker Airbus to provide Trent 700 engines and TotalCare engine service support for five Beluga XL air transporter aircraft. Rolls-Royce said the deal is worth USD700.0 million and will replace the current Airbus Beluga fleet, which is powered by engines from a different manufacturer.
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The European Commission said it has approved the acquisition of the Nimenrix and Mencevax vaccines businesses belonging to GlaxoSmithKline by an Irish subsidiary of Pfizer of the US, under the EU Merger Regulation. Both vaccines protect against meningitis A, C, W and Y. GSK committed to divest the vaccines to gain the Commission's clearance of its transaction with Novartis in January 2015.
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Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton and Saskatchewan-based electricity provider SaskPower announced a partnership to accelerate the global development of carbon capture and storage or CCS technology by sharing access to the data, information and lessons learned from SaskPower's Boundary Dam facility - the world's first full chain power sector CCS project. BHP Billiton will contribute to the establishment of a global knowledge centre to help promote research and reduce the cost and risk associated with new CCS projects.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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JD Wetherspoon reported a drop in pretax profit in its recently-ended financial year, despite growth in revenue, as it took a hit to its profit margin due to higher staff and utilities costs. The pub company reported a 2% fall in pretax profit in the year ended July 26 to GBP77.8 million from GBP79.4 million the year before, although revenue rose 7.4% to GBP1.51 billion from GBP1.41 billion. Wetherspoons will pay a total dividend of 12.0 pence, which is flat year-on-year.
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Construction and housebuilding company Galliford Try said it has won two contracts with the University of Leeds worth a total of GBP37.8 million. The first deal will see Galliford refurbish the Engineering Building on the university's main Woodhouse campus. The GBP22.5 million contract will involve refurbishing the third, fourth and fifth levels of the building and completing the maintenance backlog on the rest of the building. Galliford will also take on the GBP15.3 million refurbishment of the Edward Boyle Library. That deal will include fully refurbishing the study areas and replacing the engineering systems and roof.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Faroe Petroleum said the operator of the Portrush exploration well in the Norwegian North Sea failed to to find any hydrocarbons. Faroe has a 20% stake in the exploration well alongside operator AS Norske Shell, part of Royal Dutch Shell, and other partners VNG Norge and Petoro. The company said the well encountered its target in the Upper Jurassic reservoir rocks with a thickness of about 330 metres, and whilst 134 metres was reservoir sand of "variable quality", no hydrocarbons were encountered.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Diversified conglomerate General Electric said that it has agreed to sell its transportation finance business in the US and Canada to Canadian lender BMO Financial Group. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the business had net earning assets of about CAD11.5 billion, or USD8.7 billion, as of June 30. GE Capital's Transportation Finance business, based in Irving, Texas, provides wholesale and commercial end-user financing to OEMs, dealers and end users for heavy and medium duty commercial trucks and trailers. The business operates out of 11 locations in the US and four in Canada, with about 600 employees.
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Beauty products maker Avon Products is in talks about a stake sale with a number of private-equity firms, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter. They include Cerberus Capital Management and Platinum Equity, which specialize in distressed investing. Bids are due next week.
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Samsung Electronics Co is trying to sell nine of its private aircraft as part of a drive to reduce excessive spending and improve efficiency, a news report said. The electronics giant has approached Korean Air Lines Co over the possible sale of two Boeing 737s and a Bombardier 700, Yonhap News Agency reported, cited unnamed company officials. It was also in talks to sell six of its seven helicopters to a Korean Air subsidiary, Korea Airport Service Co, the report said.
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Friday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Sweett Group
Adams
SVM UK Emerging Fund
JPMorgan Brazil Investment Trust
Schroder Real Estate Investment
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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