BP Share News (BP.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - CSR shares rose by over a third Thursday after it rejected a takeover approach from US-based semiconductor manufacturer Microchip Technology Inc because the proposed price was too low, but said it is considering its options for the company.

Under UK takeover rules, Microchip Technology now has until September 25 to make a firm offer for chipmaker CSR or walk away.

At the other end of the FTSE 250, Xaar has lost nearly a quarter of its value after it lowered its revenue expectations for the full-year on softening demand in the Chinese ceramic tile decoration market, and posted a lower pretax profit for the first-half of the year.

Demand for ceramic tile decoration has weakened in the third quarter due to slowing construction activity in China, said Xaar, which lowered its full-year revenue expectations to GBP115 million to GBP125 million, from the GBP130 million forecast it gave in July.

It raised its interim dividend to 3.0 pence, from 2.5 pence, and said it expects to pay a total dividend of 9 pence for 2014, which would be a 12.5% increase over 2013, as it tried to sweeten investors stung by the warning and the first-half profit decline.

Xaar said that following an exceptional 2013, its business has reverted to "more typical trading patterns" during the first half, with a usual seasonal lull around Chinese New Year. Its pretax profit was GBP15.3 million for the six months to June 30, down from GBP23.4 million a year earlier, as revenue declined to GBP60.4 million, from GBP70.2 million.

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Markets: UK stocks have declined as the boost provided by the dovish comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi at the end of last week wears off.

The major US index futures currently point to a lower opening, after Asian stocks closed mixed and the major continental European markets were hot by weak economic data.

FTSE 100: down 0.4% at 6,802.34
FTSE 250: down 0.7% at 15,917.05
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.05% at 778.759
GBP-USD: up at 1.6587
EUR-USD: down at 1.3187
GOLD: up at USD1,293.48 an ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD102.93 a barrel
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Other Top UK Corporate News
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A consortium led by Royal Dutch Shell is close to selling several Nigerian oilfields for about USD5 billion to domestic buyers, as foreign companies retreat from sub-Saharan Africa’s oldest oil industry, the Financial Times reports, citing people familiar with the situation. The price tag for the four oilfields and a key pipeline co-owned by Shell, France’s Total and Eni of Italy has doubled since initial estimates towards the end of last year, and could come to USD5.2 billion, the newspaper said, although it cited the people familiar with the deal cautioning that the figure could still change as final details are negotiated. A deal is expected in the next few weeks, but then all potential buyers will require government approval, the FT added.
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BP's largest US refinery at Whiting, Indiana is continuing to operate after a blaze Wednesday evening that has now been extinguished. BP said operations at the 413,500 barrel per day Whiting refinery were minimally impacted as a result of the incident and the refinery continues to produce products for customers.
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Tullow Oil said exploration and appraisal drilling on two blocks onshore in Kenya had extended the potential size of the areas and reinforced its belief that the basin in which the blocks sit holds "very considerable" potential. The company said the Etom-1 exploration well it drilled in Block 13T was the most northerly drilled so far, and extended the proven oil basin significantly northwards after it hit about 10 metres of net oil pay.
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DCC saw its shares rise after it said it will buy Esso's unmanned and motorway retail petrol station network in France for GBP84 million in cash plus all the stock in the petrol tanks, its second deal in this sector this year as it continues to expand in transport fuels. The support services company bought the Qstar chain of unmanned retail petrol stations in Sweden in May. In a statement, DCC said the latest deal includes 274 Esso Express unmanned petrol stations, 48 Esso branded motorway concessions, and contracts to supply about 75 dealer-owned-dealer-operated sites. DCC Energy will enter into a long term branded supply agreement with Esso Société Anonyme Française.
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Engineering investment group Melrose Industries reported an increase in profit for the first half, despite a mixed performance across the business. Melrose, which specialises in buying underperforming engineering companies and turning them around, posted pretax profit of GBP69.6 million for the six months ended June 30, up from GBP64.1 million a year earlier, even though revenue fell to GBP780.9 million from GBP875.3 million. On the back of its performance the company increased its interim dividend to 2.8 pence from 2.75 pence a year earlier.
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Hays, the recruitment company, reported 12% growth in full year operating profit, and said it is ahead of schedule as it looks to broadly double operating profit by 2018. In a statement, Hays said operating profit increased to GBP140.3 million in the year ended June 30, compared with GBP125.5 million last year. Net fees crept up to GBP724.9 million from GBP719.0 million, as increases in Continental Europe & Rest of World and the UK & Ireland more than offset a fall in Asia Pacific. However, revenue itself fell to GBP3.68 billion from GBP3.70 billion. Pretax profit increased to GBP132.3 million pretax profit from GBP118.5 million. Hays increased its full year dividend per share to 2.63 pence from 2.50p.
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Healthcare company BTG said Chinese regulators have approved the registration of the DC Bead liver cancer treatment it will distribute through Chinese partner SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc. In a statement, the companies said the China Food and Drug Administration has approved the registration of DC Bead for the embolisation of malignant hypervascularised tumours.
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Hunting said that stronger trading in its second quarter boosted its first half and that activity returned to management-anticipated levels with pretax profit and revenue up after adverse weather hit its first quarter. The company also upped its interim dividend. In its half-year results for the six months to June 30, 2014, the international energy services group said pretax profit rose 15% to USD69.1 million from the USD60.0 million reported last year. Revenue was also higher, up 4.8% to USD687.5 million from USD655.7 million in the comparable period.
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IP Group reported an increase in the fair value of its investment portfolio over the course of the first half of the year, amid a flurry of activity. In a statement, IP Group said the fair value of its investment portfolio at the end of June was GBP319.6 million, up 12% from GBP285.9 million at the end of 2013. The value of its 10 largest holdings increased to GBP233.9 million from GBP225.2 million over that period. Net assets increased to GBP528.6 million from GBP336.6 million over the same period. The group had a busy first six months of the year, acquiring the remaining 79.9% of Fusion IP PLC it didn't already own, extending an intellectual property commercialisation agreement with The University of Manchester to 2019, and signing a new collaboration agreement with Princeton University.
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Shares in online gaming software supplier Playtech were higher as it expressed confidence in beating market expectations for the full year and raised its interim dividend as adjusted profit rose in the first half. The online gaming software supplier proposed an interim dividend of 8.9 euro cents, up 14.1% from 7.8 euro cents the year before. Playtech posted a pretax profit of EUR76.9 million in the half year to end-June, down from a pretax profit of EUR414.8 million a year earlier when it booked a gain on the sale of its 29% share in William Hill Online to William Hill PLC.
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AIM MOVERS
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MBL Group trades higher after the company reported a 10% increase in revenue from its remaining businesses in its last financial year, while investments it made in its garden and leisure operations meant profit was flat. At the other end of the market, Amur Minerals Corp is down despite saying that its reserve statement for the the nickel and copper sulphide deposits at the Kun-Manie deposit in Russia has been upgraded by a quarter, and there is the potential for a further increase after infill drilling of inferred resources.
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Other Top Economics And General
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accused Russia of a military invasion and cancelled an official visit to Turkey over "the sharp aggravation of the situation in Donetsk." Ukraine has called an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council. "The world must provide an assessment of the sharp aggravation of the situation in Ukraine," the president said. Poroshenko had been due to attend the inauguration ceremony for new Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Pro-Russian separatists were advancing towards the southern town of Mariupol and their tanks had reached the south-eastern city of Novoazovsk, more than 100 kilometres south of Donetsk, near the Russian border, where the government in Kiev said they were opening a "second front" in the conflict.
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Economic sentiment in the eurozone dropped in August, according to data released, falling to its lowest level this year amid global tensions triggered by the crises in Ukraine and Iraq. The Economic Sentiment Indicator for the 18-member currency zone fell to 100.6 points this month from 102.1 points in July, the European Commission said. Analysts had expected a more moderate August decline, to 101.5, from the commission's previously estimated July reading of 102.2 points. Among the largest eurozone economies, the sharpest falls in confidence were seen in Italy and in Germany, the EU's executive said.
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Germany's unemployment increased unexpectedly in August, official data revealed. The number of people out of work increased by a seasonally adjusted 2,000 to 2.901 million in August, the Federal Labor Agency said. Economists had expected a decline of 5,000 after decreasing 12,000 in July. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate remained unchanged at 6.7% in August, in line with expectations.
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French unemployment reached a new record in July as the economy stagnated again in the second quarter. Registered unemployment increased by 0.8% to a record 3.424 million in July, the labor ministry reported late Wednesday. From a year earlier, unemployment rose by 4.3%. The stalled economy and high unemployment made it difficult for the French President Francois Hollande to convince his own allies about reforms on cards.
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Islamic State militants have torched an oilfield in northern Iraq in a bid to block advancing Kurdish forces, the Kurdish military says. The field is located in the militant-held area of Zumar, which the Kurdish Peshmerga troops are preparing to wrest back from the jihadists, the military told dpa.
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Kurdish Peshmerga forces took control of seven villages from the Islamic State in northern Iraq in a major offensive against the radical group, the Iraqi government-run TV al-Iraqiya reported. The villages are located near the strategic Mosul Dam, which the Peshmerga had recaptured from the extremists in mid-August. The dam, Iraq's largest, is located on the Tigris River, which flows through the capital Baghdad. After having suffered setbacks by the Islamic State early this month, the Peshmerga, backed by US airstrikes, have been able to retake several areas from the al-Qaeda splinter group in the past two weeks.
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EU leaders will have a second attempt on Saturday at filling the bloc's top jobs for the next five years, but they are faced with a politically complex puzzle that is further bogged down by a dearth of female candidates. The leadership change follows European elections in May. Successors are most urgently needed for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, whose term ends on October 31, and for EU President Herman Van Rompuy.
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The Ebola death toll in West Africa has risen to 1,552 as the outbreak continues to accelerate, the World Health Organization said. The Geneva-based organization said 3,069 suspected or confirmed cases had been reported in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. More than 40% of all cases occurred within the past three weeks, pointing to an acceleration of the infection rates in the region, WHO said.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times British Summer Time)

13:00 Germany Consumer Price Index
13:30 US Core Personal Consumption Expenditure
13:30 US Gross Domestic Product Price Index Preliminary
13:30 US Jobless Claims
15:00 US Pending Home Sales
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage change
16:00 US Kansas Fed manufacturing activity
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Friday's Key UK Corporate Events

Exova Half Year Results
Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment Half Year Results
Restaurant Group Half Year Results
Stobart Group Trading Statement
Berendsen Half Year Results
British Polythene Industries Half Year Results
Charles Taylor Half Year Results
Chesnara Half Year Results
Computacenter Half Year Results
Headlam Group Half Year Results
Lavendon Group Half Year Results
Perform Group Half Year Results
Biofrontera Half Year Results
Afren Half Year Results
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Friday's Key Economic Events (all times British Summer Time)

00:01 UK Hometrack Housing Prices
00:05 UK Gfk Consumer Confidence
00:30 Japan Overall Household Spending
00:30 Japan Tokyo Consumer Price Index
00:30 Japan Jobs/applicants ratio
00:30 Japan National Consumer Price Index
00:30 Japan Unemployment Rate
00:50 Japan Industrial Production
00:50 Japan Retail Trade
05:00 Japan Vehicle Production
06:00 Japan Construction Orders
06:00 Japan Housing Starts
06:00 Japan Annualized Housing Starts
07:00 UK Nationwide Housing Prices
07:00 Germany Retail Sales
09:30 UK Total Business Investment
10:00 EU Consumer Price Index
10:00 EU Unemployment Rate
13:30 US Core Personal Consumption Expenditure - Price Index
13:30 US Personal Income
13:30 US Personal Spending
14:45 US Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index
14:55 US Reuters/Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index

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