BP Share News (BP.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares have opened flat to lower in London Monday, as the market keeps an eye on Greece and awaits the US Federal Reserve meeting later in the week.

HSBC Holdings shares are continuing their gains at the open, up 3.6% to lead the FTSE 100, having gained 2.9% on Friday after announcing a review of the possibility of moving its headquarters outside the UK. Over the weekend, the Sunday Times reported that HSBC also is mulling the spin-off of its UK retail bank into a separate business for about GBP20 billion.

Shares in fellow highly international UK-based bank Standard Chartered are just behind Monday, up 3.2%.

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 7,066.66
FTSE 250: down 0.2% at 17,702.52
AIM ALL-SHARE: flat at 753.56
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Hang Seng: up 1.6% at 28,502.80
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.2% at 19,983.32
DJIA: closed up 0.1% at 18,080.14
S&P 500: closed up 0.2% at 2,117.69
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GBP: down at USD1.5164
EUR: down at USD1.0862

GOLD: up at USD1,182.25 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD65.20 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 in BST)

11:00 UK CBI Industrial Trends Survey
11:00 Ireland Retail Sales
14:45 US Markit Services and Composite PMI
15:30 US Dallas Fed Manufacturing Business Index
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The Conservatives retained a lead in the latest Opinium poll over the weekend, but Labour continues to narrowly top the YouGov surveys as polls of polls have the two parties in a dead heat as the UK General Election campaign moves into its final 10 days. The latest Opinium/The Observer poll has the Conservatives retaining their lead, albeit at a narrower margin than a week earlier. The Tories are on 34%, down two points from a week ago, but remain a point ahead of Labour on 33%. The YouGov/The Sun poll for Monday saw Labour lose a point but also retain a lead over the Tories, at 34% to 33%. The BBC and Sky News polls of polls both have Labour and the Tories level-pegging on 33%.
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Germany's import prices continued to decline in March but the pace of decrease slowed for the second month, data from Destatis showed. Import prices fell by less-than-expected 1.4% in March from last year, following a 3% drop in February. Prices were expected to fall 2%. Nonetheless, the import price index has been falling since January 2013. At the same time, the annual increase in export prices doubled to 1.4% from 0.7% in February. Similarly, monthly growth accelerated to 0.6% from 0.3%.
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For weeks, Greece and its eurozone financial backers have been talking past each other, piling up frustration upon frustration as the Mediterranean country's coffers slowly dry up. On Friday, the tensions finally started to boil over. At a tumultuous meeting in Riga, eurozone finance ministers beseeched their Greek colleague Yanis Varoufakis, in what diplomats said was unusually frank language, to deliver the economic reforms needed to unblock bailout aid. Athens and its creditors have been negotiating such reforms for weeks, but no agreement is in sight. The Financial Times made waves by reporting that Slovenian Finance Minister Dusan Mramor had told the meeting to prepare a "Plan B" to deal with a Greek default. But the comment could not be independently confirmed, and Mramor publicly downplayed suggestions that "Plan B" referred to a Grexit.
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The death toll from the earthquake that hit Nepal at the weekend is more than 3,200, Interior Ministry spokesman Laxmi Dhakal said. Around 6,238 people were injured in the quake that hit on Saturday, according to the government. Chief Secretary Lilamani Poudel asked all government employees and bodies to work to help the injured and the displaced. The government said it was preparing to hold mass cremations to prevent diseases from spreading. The Tourism Ministry said it was also focusing on rescuing the foreigners trapped around the country. "We rescued around 82 people from the Everest Base Camp yesterday," ministry secretary Suresh Man Shrestha said. "There are 18 dead bodies on Mount Everest but we brought down only the wounded. Hopefully there will be no more casualties."
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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RBC Upgrades Sports Direct To Sector Perform From Underperform, Price Target Cut To 650p (700p)
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RBC Upgrades Supergroup To Outperform From Sector Perform, Price Target Raised To 1,150p (1,000p)
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UBS CUTS TATE & LYLE TO 'NEUTRAL' ('BUY') - PRICE TARGET 590 (610) PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Centrica said energy consumption in the first quarter of 2015 was higher as weather was colder than expected, despite the number of residential accounts remaining broadly flat and business accounts falling, but the company reiterated its full-year guidance. The company said residential gas consumption was 10% higher in the first three months of 2015 year-on-year with electricity consumption increasing by 2%, which Centrica said was due to colder temperatures than normal during the period.
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Drinks giant Diageo confirmed it is considering its options as Indian drinks company United Spirits moved to oust its chairman and former majority shareholder amid an internal probe into its financial statements. Diageo noted a statement by USL, in which it holds a 54.78% majority stake, saying that the board had lost confidence in Vijay Mallya and had called on him to resign. Mallya had indicated he wouldn't tender his resignation, said USL, which had said it would ask shareholders to vote him out if he refused to step down. The Financial Times reported over the weekend that USL's probe found improprieties in financial transactions between United Spirits and Kingfisher Airlines, the now-collapsed Indian carrier also owned by Mallya, between 2010 and 2012.
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Royal Bank of Scotland Group said it will book a USD30 million loss on disposal after it sold a further portfolio of North American corporate loan commitments to Mizuho Financial Group, coming on top of the deal it did with the same bank in February. The British bank said the latest loan portfolio it is selling in North America comprises USD5.6 billion of loan commitments, including USD0.5 billion of drawn assets as of the end of February, and generated a profit after tax in the region of USD20 million in calendar 2014.
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HSBC Holdings is mulling the spin-off of its UK retail bank into a separate business for about GBP20 billion, the Sunday Times newspaper reported. A deal could revive the old Midland Bank, which was bought by the lender in 1992. The move comes amid government requirements that banks separate their retail business from the rest of their operations as of 2019. The lender said Friday that it would review whether to move its headquarters out of the UK, as the Asia-focused bank grapples with higher taxes and regulatory costs in the country.
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Irish building materials company CRH said it will shortly start looking for a new finance director after it said the current holder of the role, Maeve Carton, will lead a new strategic function from the start of 2016. In a statement, CRH said Carton will become group transformation director, identifying and implementing the optimum financial and business model for the group in the years ahead.
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The European Commission on Friday cleared the proposed acquisition of several assets of Holcim of Switzerland and of Lafarge of France by CRH. The Commission concluded that the transaction would raise no competition concerns, in particular because the merged entity will continue to face sufficiently strong competition after the merger and customers will have alternative suppliers in all markets concerned.
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The UK government has told BP it would oppose any potential takeover of the company, amid speculation the oil major could become a target in the wake of the takeover of BG Group by Royal Dutch Shell, the Financial Times reported. British officials told the FT that Downing Street would be "sceptical" about any takeover as it wants the UK to retain two big global oil companies. ExxonMobil, the US oil and gas giant, has been tipped by analysts for a possible takeover bid for BP, the FT noted.
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Randgold Resources said the Tongon gold mine in the Ivory coast is on track to achieve its full-year production and cost guidance for 2015 after the company made "significant progress" in dealing with challenges at the mine that had previously hampered operations. The Tongon mine will produce around 260,000 ounces of gold in 2015 at a cash cost of USD820 per ounce. At the current gold price, the project should be able to repay the capital expenditure spent on developing the project in 2015 as scheduled, said Randgold.
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Great Portland Estates said its Great Wigmore Partnership joint venture with FTSE 100 fund manager Aberdeen Asset Management has sold the 95 Wigmore Street property in central London for GBP222.4 million. FTSE 250-listed Great Portland said the property has been sold to UBS Global Asset Management's real estate business and said the sale price reflects a net initial yield of 3.4%.
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Department store BHS is set to announce on Monday that it has signed a deal with Compass Group under which the caterer will take control of all cafes and restaurants within its stores, The Times reported. BHS is also set to open 20 "food stores" within its existing outlets by the end of the summer, following a successful trial conducted in three of its stores, The Times said.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Tullow Oil confirmed an international tribunal has ordered all exploration for oil and gas in a disputed offshore area between Ghana and the Ivory Coast to be suspended, including in the company's flagship TEN project. Although exploration and new exploitation in the disputed area is suspended, existing developments such as the TEN project can continue to be developed. All new exploration and exploitation will remain suspended until the Special Chamber of the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany, makes a final decision on the maritime boundary dispute between the two countries in late 2017.
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Playtech expressed confidence for strong growth in 2015 as it delivered a strong start to the year, with revenue up 31% in its first quarter. Playtech provides software and services for the gaming industry. The company said its revenue for the first quarter of 2015 was EUR134.9 million, up from EUR102.7 million a year before, and up from EUR126.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2014. This was mostly driven by a strong performance from its Casino and Services segments, and a big jump in its Land-based revenue, which offset a slight decline in Poker revenue.
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LondonMetric Property said its Metric Income Plus Income Partnership joint venture has sold the Lichfield retail park property in Staffordshire for GBP13.3 million and has sold its B&Q retail park in Londonderry for GBP18 million. The Staffordshire property has been sold to Mayfair Capital's MCCPT fund, with GBP6.7 million of the consideration due to FTSE 250-listed LondonMetric. The joint venture has also sold its B&Q retail park property in Londonderry in Northern Ireland for GBP18 million.
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SVG Capital priced a GBP70 million share tender offer at 535 pence a share, a 7% discount to its net asset value of 575.2 pence at the end of January. The tender offer, which the company said is part of its capital allocation policy, needs to be approved by its shareholders at its annual general meeting on May 1.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Atlas Mara said it has entered into exclusive talks to invest around USD22.5 million in Banque Populaire du Rwanda, which would give the group a 45% stake in the business. Atlas Mara, the Africa-focused bank investment vehicle set up by former Barclays PLC chief executive Bob Diamond, said it intends to merge Banque Populaire du Rwanda with BRD Commercial Bank Ltd, the Rwandan bank it acquired in 2014.
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Stock Spirits Group said Jack Keenan is to step down as non-executive chairman of the drinks distributor and retire from its board following its annual general meeting on May 19. He will be replaced by David Maloney, currently senior independent non-executive director of Stock Spirits.
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Red24 said it expects its results for the recently-ended financial year to beat its own expectations, after it managed to mitigate the loss of a major client earlier in the year by cutting costs and winning other work with existing and new clients, while the current year has got off to a good start.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Deutsche Bank reported an about 50% decline in first-quarter profit, despite clocking double-digit revenue growth, as the German lender recorded hefty legal charges over allegations of rate-rigging. In a statement, the bank said its results were hurt by litigation expenses of EUR1.5 billion, mainly reflecting a settlement with the US and UK authorities relating to interbank offered rates and bank levy charges of EUR561 million. As a result, the bank's quarterly net earnings plunged to EUR559 million from EUR1.1 billion a year ago.
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Volkswagen patriarch Ferdinand Piech stepped down as board chairman, the company announced Saturday, ending a power struggle within the world's second largest automaker that played out over the last two weeks. Piech's wife, Ursula, also gave up her seat on the board. Piech, 78, had been seeking to oust Volkswagen chief executive, Martin Winterkorn, 67.
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Finnish network equipment maker Nokia has denied reports that the company communicated an intention to manufacture consumer handsets out of a R&D facility in China. "These reports are false, and include comments incorrectly attributed to a Nokia Networks executive," the company said in a statement. Nokia also reiterated that it currently has no plans to manufacture or sell consumer handsets.
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SunTrust Banks Inc, Apollo Global Management and Ares Management LP are considering offers for a General Electric Co unit in the US that lends to private-equity firms, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter. GE is working with Citigroup Inc to sell the business, which could fetch more than USD10 billion, which is the face value of its outstanding loans, the report said.
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Monday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Centrica
Biome Technologies
Symphony International
Good Energy Group
Minoan Group
Lok'n Store
Dragon Oil
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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