BP Share News (BP.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock-market declines in New York and Tokyo, combined with continued protests in Hong Kong, have led to opening declines in London Thursday.

Later in the session, markets will focus on the European Central Bank meeting, with the interest rate decision due at 1245 BST, followed by President Mario Draghi's policy statement and press conference starting at 1330 BST.

Aberdeen Asset Managment and Hargreaves Lansdown are both bucking a down market, up 1.3% and 0.7%, respectively. Traders say Jefferies has raised Aberdeen to Hold from Underperform, while they say Numis has upgraded Hargreaves Lansdown to Buy from Add.

TUI Travel also is a blue-chip gainer, up 0.8%, after saying it will record an underlying full year operating profit at the top end of its growth guidance.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.3% at 6,539.84
FTSE 250: down 0.3% at 15,171.67
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.5% at 740.47
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Hang Seng: market closed for National Day
Nikkei 225: closed down 2.6% at 15,661.99
DJIA: closed down 1.4% at 16,804.71
S&P 500: closed down 1.3% at 1,946.16
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.6192
EUR-USD: flat at USD1.2617

GOLD: down at USD1,214.42 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD93.65 a barrel

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

holiday China National Day
09:30 UK PMI Construction
10:00 EU Producer Price Index
12:30 US Challenger Job Cuts
12:45 EU ECB Interest Rate Decision
13:30 EU ECB Monetary policy statement and press conference
13:30 US Jobless Claims
14:45 US ISM New York index
15:00 US Factory Orders
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage change
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UK Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to cut taxes for 30 million people if his Conservative Party win next year's general election, raising the tax free allowance and raising the threshold at which people start getting taxed 40 pence in the pound, the BBC reports. In a speech which ended his party's annual conference, Cameron said he would raise the tax-free allowance to GBP12,500, from GBP10,500 2020, while the threshold for the 40p income tax rate would be raised to GBP50,000, from GBP41,900, by the end of a five-year Conservative government.
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Hundreds of student protesters were blocking exits from the office of Hong Kong's leader early Thursday, as part of mass pro-democracy demonstrations in the Chinese territory. Hundreds of police were guarding the office of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. Student leaders had called for Leung to resign by Thursday or they would occupy and "paralyze the functioning" of important government offices.
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The fight for the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane geared up early Thursday as Islamic State militants advanced, a monitoring group said. "Fighting intensified at dawn Thursday between Islamic State militants and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) at western outskirts of the city of Kobane, prompting the YPG to withdraw from the area to the outskirts of the city, while militants advanced," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The watchdog said the YPG and other Kurdish fighters were preparing for street battles amid fears that the Islamic State militants might commit massacres if they take the city.
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A Palestinian-Arab United Nations draft resolution sets a two-year deadline to ending the Israeli occupation of the territories it captured in 1967, including East Jerusalem, al-Arabiya reported Wednesday. The Israeli withdrawal must begin "as rapidly as possible and to be fully completed" no later than November 2016, the Dubai-based Arabic channel quoted the text as saying. In Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he hoped the Security Council would vote on the resolution within three weeks.
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The World Health Organization has at least 1,500 experimental Ebola vaccine doses ready to be given to medical staff who are fighting the disease in West Africa, the UN health agency said Wednesday in Geneva. WHO has been working to speed up testing of two experimental-stage vaccines - chimpanzee adenovirus developed by British company GlaxoSmithKline and a US government laboratory, and VSV developed by Canada's health agency.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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TRADERS: JEFFERIES RAISES ABERDEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT TO 'HOLD' ('UNDERPERFORM')
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TRADERS: NUMIS RAISES HARGREAVES LANSDOWN TO 'BUY' ('ADD')
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UBS ADDS ANGLO AMERICAN TO 'LEAST PREFERRED LIST' EUROPEAN MINING - 'NEUTRAL'
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TRADERS: JEFFERIES INITIATES DECHRA PHARMACEUTICALS WITH 'BUY'
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TRADERS: LIBERUM INITIATES HALMA WITH 'HOLD'
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TRADERS: NUMIS RAISES HENDERSON GROUP PLC TO 'HOLD' ('REDUCE')
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UBS CUTS FERREXPO TO 'SELL' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 100 (140) PENCE; ADDS FERREXPO TO 'LEAST PREFERRED LIST' EUROPEAN METALS & MINING
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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UK travel operator TUI Travel confirmed it will record an underlying full year operating profit at the top end of its growth guidance, boosted by strong trading in the UK and growing demand for its "unique" all-inclusive package holidays. The travel operator, which owns Thomson and First Choice, said it is confident of achieving underlying operating profit growth of at least 9% on a constant currency basis for the financial year ended September 30. It had previously guided for profit growth of between 7% to 10%.
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British Sky Broadcasting Group said it has made a further USD0.7 million equity investment in streaming technology company Roku, topping up the combined USD12.2 million investment the pay-TV company had made in July 2012 and May 2013. In a statement, Sky said the latest investment is to provide Roku with financing for its operations and activities. It added that 21st Century Fox also made a further equity investment in Roku, but didn't disclose how much.
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BP's Oman business on Wednesday awarded two long-term drilling contracts worth a total of over USD730 million for the Khazzan project in Block 61 in the country. Aberdeen-based KCA Deutag has been handed more than USD400 million in contracts to handle the construction and operation of five new build land rigs for the Khazzan project. In addition, Oman-based Abraj Energy Service has won USD330 million in contracts to supply three drilling rigts for the full field development at Khazzan.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Pizza delivery chain Domino's Pizza Group said strong sales growth in the third quarter continued to be driven by its UK business, online sales, and its meal-deal promotions, but the chain warned of tougher trading comparatives in the final quarter. "We face more challenging comparatives for the final quarter, but we remain confident of a satisfactory outcome for the year and are planning to build on this success in 2015," said Chief Executive David Wild in a statement. Domino's Pizza reported like-for-like UK sales growth of 12.9% in its 13 week third quarter ended September 28. System sales, which are total sales made by all the company's franchisee and corporate stores, rose 17.6% to GBP165.7 million.
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Electrocomponents said underlying sales in the first half rose year-on-year, but said it expects its profits to be impacted by fewer trading days, the strength of sterling and restructuring costs. The electronic and maintenance product distributor said group underlying sales in the first half to September 30 were up 3% overall. International sales have increased 5% in the period, but UK sales are down 2%.
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Ophir Energy said it has discovered gas at its Kamba-1 well in Tanzania. The company said it has discovered 1.03 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Kamba and Fulusi prospects from its Kamba-1 well. The gas discovery is comprised of 650 billion cubic feet of gas in Kamba prospect and 360 billion cubic feet in Fulusi prospect. The Kamba-1 well is in its block 4 license, which is operated by BG Group, with Ophir holding a 20% interest in the license.
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Ted Baker reported another set of stellar growth figures for the first half of its financial year, as profit growth continues to be driven by its successful online business and strong growth in the UK and expansion overseas. The British clothing and accessories retailer declared a near 19% increase in its interim dividend, after reporting pretax profit of GBP15.6 million for the six months ended August 9, up 34% on the GBP11.6 million profit it recorded in the first half of last year.
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Struggling infrastructure company Balfour Beatty said it has sold its stake in a UK hospitals project for more than it expected, and had reached financial close in a US housing project as well as being made preferred bidder in two student accommodation projects in the US and Australia. In a statement, the company said it has sold it 50% interest in the Pinderfields and Pontefract hospital public-private partnership project to a subsidiary of HICL Infrastructure Co Ltd for GBP61.5 million, exceeding Balfour's expectations and generating a gain on disposal of GBP42.2 million. The proceeds exceed the revised directors' valuation by GBP13.5 million, representing an uplift of 28%, it said.
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Meanwhile, recent Balfour Beatty suitor, infrastructure company Carillion said trading remains in line with its own expectations and the guidance it gave when it put out its interim results in August. In a statement, the company said it is focused on mobilising the new contracts it won in the first half of the year, particularly the support services deals. It won about GBP3.2 billion of new orders and probable orders in the first half of the year.
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SIG said it has agreed a deal to refinance its GBP250 million revolving credit facility on more favourable terms. The building products company said the new five-year deal has been secured through Barclays, HSBC Holdings, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland Group, all existing lenders, along with German bank Commerzbank.
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Afren said it has started the process of returning to normal staffing levels at the Barda Rash field in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq following an improvement in the security situation in the region. Afren had said on August 8 it would temporarily suspend operations at Barda Rash due to the heightened tensions in the region, though it said it did not expect the move to have a significant impact on its cash flow.
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Galliford Try said it has been appointed as a selected panel member for the Greenwich, Lewisham and Croydon Priority School Building Programme batch by the Education Funding Agency. Galliford said the contract is worth over GBP45 million and marks the company's third appointment to one of the school building batches.
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Asset manager Henderson Group said it has made an initial payment of about USD120.0 million, USD10.0 million less than it had originally set out, following the completion of its acquisition of Geneva Capital Management. In June, Henderson had said it would pay USD130.0 million up-front for the US equity manager. At the time the deal was unveiled, Henderson had said that Geneva had USD6.3 billion of assets under management at the end of May 31. However, Henderson late Wednesday said that it acquired USD5.4 billion of assets under management under the deal. It said that clients representing more than 90% of Geneva's assets under management consented to the deal. Under the terms of the deal revealed on June 30, Henderson will make deferred payment of up to USD45.0 million, payable over five years from closing, if revenue retention targets are met.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Virgin Money, the banking arm of Richard Branson's Virgin group, is set to unveil plans for a stock market listing in London on Thursday which is set to value the business at up to GBP2 billion, Sky News reported. The company is finalising the appointment of Barclays PLC, Citigroup Inc and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc to handle the issue, with Goldman Sachs Inc and Bank of America Merrill Lynch also set to work on the deal, Sky News said. A successful flotation would make Virgin Money the fourth bank to float this year, following TSB Banking Group PLC in June and the recently announced plans from OneSavings Bank PLC and Aldermore Bank.
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Xaar said it now expects revenue for the full year to be 5%-10% below the bottom of its previously guided range of GBP115-125 million, citing further reduced orders from its original equipment manufacturer partners in the ceramic tile market in China. In a statement, the digital inkjet printing technology group said that monitoring of the ceramic tile market in China has indicated a further decline in activity, prompting the revision of its revenue guidance for 2014.
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Ryanair Holdings said its September traffic and load factor both improved year-on-year. The low-cost carrier said its customer numbers for September 2014 rose 5% to 8.5 million from 8.1 million a year earlier. It said its load factor increased by 5 percentage points to 90% from 85% a year earlier.
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Costain Group said its joint venture with Vinci Construction Grands Projetshas been awarded an GBP86 million contract by Scottish Water to construct the Shieldhall Tunnel in Glasgow. In a statement, Costain said work will start in October and is expected to finish in early 2018.
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Information management software supplier Ideagen said it has won its largest single NHS contract to date, a GBP1 million deal to supply its patient management software to the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and overall revenue and operating profits are expected to be significantly up on the year in its first half. In a statement, the company said it expects to recognise about 65% of the NHS contract value in the current financial year, which ends on April 30, 2015.
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Biofrontera said it has completed the clinical programme for US approval of its Ameluz product, with trials confirming the efficacy and safety of the treatment. The biopharmaceutical company said the preliminary results from the ongoing trial of its Ameluz skin cancer drug confirmed its positive expectations.
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Savannah Resources said it has completed the third round of scout drilling and the first round of resource drilling at its Jangamo heavy mineral sands project, visually finding mineralisation in many of the holes of both programmes and suggesting it has the potential to outline several major zones of mineralisation. In a statement, the company said samples from the drilling programme have been sent to the lab and the analysis results are expected in six to eight weeks. It added that it remains on track to define a potential JORC mineral resource in late 2014.
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Sefton Resources said it had made a required USD120,000 forebearance payment to its lender, and has got agreement on a delayed payment on the interest and fees owed. In a statement, Sefton said it had been required to make the USD120,000 payment by September 30, and made the payment on that day, using funds provided by Hawker through a subordinated loan. It said a further USD26,000 to cover interest and fees will be made by Hawker within a week, and its bank has verbally agreed to this delay.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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German technology company Rocket Internet said Wednesday it has priced its initial public offering at the high end of its price range at EUR42.50 per share, valuing the company at EUR6.7 billion. The Berlin-based company had earlier announced the price range of its IPO between EUR35.50 and EUR42.50 per share. The company's shares will start trading in Frankfurt from October 9. The company expects gross proceeds of EUR1.6 billion from the IPO and plans to use the proceeds to fund new start-up ventures as well as for existing businesses.
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Bank of America Corp said Wednesday its board elected Brian Moynihan as chairman, in addition to his current role as chief executive officer, effective immediately. Moynihan succeeds succeeding Charles "Chad" Holliday Jr, who will remain a member of the Board.
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Telecom giant AT&T and Amazon Web Services or AWS are working together to extend AT&T NetBond to AWS. Customers will have a new high performing and highly-secure choice to connect to AWS. This includes the ability to scale their network at the same rate as their enterprise-class applications running on the AWS Cloud.
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Thursday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

European Convergence Development Co
Artemis Alpha Trust
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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