BP Share News (BP.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Corporate news continues to take centre stage in London Thursday, in the absence of any breakthrough on the Greek debt negotiations.

Eurozone finance ministers ended their talks Wednesday without any major breakthrough on the future course of action on Greek debt funding. "We had an intense discussion and constructive, covering a lot of ground, also making progress, but not enough progress at this point to come to joint conclusions," Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said at the press conference in Brussels late Wednesday.

EU leaders are set to meet in Brussels Thursday. Eurozone finance ministers will gather again on Monday.

Rio Tinto leads FTSE 100 gainers, with fellow mining giant Anglo American close behind, up 1.9% and 1.3%, respectively, after Rio Tinto reported a fall in underlying earnings in 2014, but said it will hike its dividend and launch a USD2 billion share buyback programme.

Anglo American provides its own 2014 results on Friday.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.1% at 6,825.61
FTSE 250: up 0.1% at 16,641.36
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 697.43
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Hang Seng: closed up 0.4% at 24,422.15
Nikkei 225: closed up 1.9% at 17,979.72
DJIA: closed flat at 17,862.14
S&P 500: closed flat at 2,068.53

GBP-USD: slightly up at USD1.5242
EUR-USD: flat at USD1.1334

GOLD: up at USD1,221.90 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD57.00 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 in GMT)

10:00 EU Industrial Production
10:30 Bank of England Quarterly Inflation Report and Governor Carney speech
13:30 US Jobless Claims
13:30 Canada New Housing Price Index
13:30 US Retail Sales
15:00 US Business Inventories
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage
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Participants at the Minsk talks on the Ukraine conflict were preparing to sign a document, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported. The document covers 12 or 13 points that would resolve the crisis in eastern Ukraine, the agency reported, citing an unnamed diplomat. A room was apparently being prepared at the venue of the talks where Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were to sign the deal. The talks that have lasted for more than 12 hours were close to being concluded, a source told dpa asking not to be named.
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The average asking price for a house in the UK continued to increase in January, albeit at a slower pace, the latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed, with a score of +7. That was down substantially from +12 in December, and it marked the slowest rate of growth since May 2013. Prices in London's capital region slipped for a fifth consecutive month, falling to a six-year low.
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A hotly debated Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline cleared final US Congressional approval and was bound for the desk of President Barack Obama, who has vowed to veto the law. The House of Representatives voted 270 to 152 to adopt the bill previously passed by the Senate, putting the new, Republican-dominated Congress on course for its first veto.
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Italian captain Francesco Schettino was found guilty of the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia cruise liner three years ago and sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment. Judges in Grosseto, central Italy, also inflicted on the 54-year-old a lifetime ban on holding public office and barred him from his profession for five years. The court ordered Schettino to pay millions of euros in legal fees and damages to a long list of plaintiffs, including victims and Italian authorities, together with Concordia's owners, Costa Crociere.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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BERNSTEIN CUTS SKY TO 'MARKET-PERFORM' ('OUTPERFORM')
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GOLDMAN CUTS DIAGEO TO 'SELL' ('NEUTRAL') - PRICE TARGET 1680 (1865) PENCE
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SOCGEN CUTS BG GROUP TO 'SELL' ('BUY') - PRICE TARGET 900 (1275) PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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BT Group announced a placing of new shares to raise around GBP1.0 billion, which it will use to part fund its acquisition of mobile provider EE Ltd. BT announced last Thursday that it has agreed to buy EE from its joint owners Deutsche Telekom AG and Orange SA for GBP12.5 billion in cash and shares. BT said the shares issued in the placing will represent around 3% of its outstanding share capital. The placing will be conducted through an accelerated bookbuilding process conducted by JP Morgan Securities , Merrill Lynch International and Goldman Sachs.
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Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto reported a fall in underlying earnings in 2014, but said it would hike its dividend and will launch a USD2 billion share buyback programme. The FTSE 100-listed group said its underlying earnings for the year to the end of December hit USD9.31 billion, down from USD10.2 billion last year. Revenue for the group fell to USD50.04 billion in the year, down from USD54.60 billion the year before, as revenue fell in the majority of its operating units. But the mining group said it would hike its total dividend by 12% to 215 US cents per share, up from 192 cents per share last year. The group also said it would launch a USD2 billion share buyback programme, comprising a USD400 million off-market share buy-back tender and a USD1.6 billion on-market buyback of shares.
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Imperial Tobacco Group said tobacco net revenue grew by 4% at constant currency rates to GBP1.49 billion in the first quarter of its financial year, driven by volume and revenue growth from its growth brands, and reaffirmed its outlook for the full year, with dividend growth of at least 10%. However, the global tobacco firm said it continues to take a hit from adverse currency movements, which in the three months to end-December pushed tobacco net revenue into negative territory at reported rates - down 2%.
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AstraZeneca agreed to pay the US government USD7.9 million to settle allegations that it engaged in a kickback scheme in violation of the False Claims Act, the Justice Department announced. AstraZeneca markets and sells pharmaceutical products in the US, including a drug sold under the trade name Nexium. The settlement resolves allegations that AstraZeneca agreed to provide remuneration to Medco Health Solutions, a pharmacy benefit manager, in exchange for Medco maintaining Nexium's "sole and exclusive" status on certain Medco formularies and through other marketing activities related to those Medco formularies.
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Royal Dutch Shell and BP are resisting efforts by Abu Dhabi to get them to pay a multi-billion dollar signing-on fee to get a stake in developing the emirate's biggest onshore oil fields, the Financial Times reported. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co is understood to have demanded around USD8 billion in total from a number of international oil companies which are seeking to get a piece of a 40% equity stake in oil reserves to be developed over the next 40 years, the FT said.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Morgan Advanced Materials reported its pretax profit halved in 2014, as revenue was dragged back by currency headwinds over the year. The FTSE 250-listed carbon and ceramic products manufacturer said its pretax profit for the year to December 31 was down to GBP31.5 million from GBP64 million a year earlier. The company has proposed a final dividend of 7.0 pence per share, up on the 6.7 pence paid last year, bringing its total dividend for 2014 to 10.9 pence per share from 10.5 pence a year earlier.
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Informa raised its dividend for 2014, as impairment charges offset a rise in revenue, leading it to swing to a pretax loss. The business media and events company company proposed a final dividend of 12.9 pence, taking its total dividend to 19.3 pence, up from 18.9 pence a year before. Informa said that, assuming current exchange rates continue, it expects to deliver earnings per share growth in 2015.
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Insurance and reinsurance provider Lancashire Holdings said it is in a "very good place for 2015", as it posted a rise in pretax profit for 2014. The FTSE 250-listed company proposed a further special dividend of 50 cents, takings total special dividends for the year to USD1.70, compared to 65 cents in 2013. It also maintained its final dividend of 10 cents, taking its total standard dividends for the year to 15 cents. Lancashire Holdings posted a pretax profit of USD226.5 million, up from USD218.1 million a year before, as a rise in total net revenue to USD764.8 million, from USD642.6 million was partly offset by higher net insurance losses and insurance acquisition expenses.
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FTSE 250-listed support services company DCC said its operating profit in the third quarter rose year-on-year, on the back of good performances in its technology, healthcare, environmental and food and beverage units. DCC said volumes and margins in its DCC Energy business were held back by the milder weather conditions in Europe, in particular in the UK, its largest market. The group reiterated its full-year expectations on the back of the third quarter results, saying it still expects to generate earnings per share growth of 5-10%.
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Online property portal Zoopla Property Group said it is trading in line with its expectations for the year and shrugged off the challenge posed by new estate-agent-backed property portal OnTheMarket. The group said its agency numbers have been dragged down by the launch of OnTheMarket, with total advertising members down 11% to 16,967 at the end of January from 18,999 a year earlier. Zoopla added it had 42.3 million average monthly visits between October 1 and the end of January and a record 50.5 million visits in January.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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European electronics retailer Darty said revenue rose 2.4% in the third quarter of its financial year, supported by a good trading performance in France, but said margins were hit by a competitive market environment
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Shares in Mariana Resources rose after the company reported positive results from the initial drilling programme at the Hot Maden Prospect in Turkey. The company said the assay results from the drilling showed the stronger mineralisation from the Hole 4 discovery at the site continued into the new drilling targets.
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Central Rand Gold said it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Huili Resources (Group) Ltd for the sale of its Dutch subsidiary and assets for up to USD150 million in a fourth potential deal for the company. During 2014, Central Rand entered into agreements with Shengbang Jiabo (Beijing) Consulting Co Ltd, the Hiria Group and Beijing Ankong Investment in relation to the potential sale of its wholly owned subsidiary Central Rand Gold (Netherlands Antilles) NV, which owns all the assets of the company.
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Rare Earth Minerals said it has requested a meeting with shareholders of fellow London-listed Bacanora Minerals to propose that its chairman, David Lenigas, is appointed to the board of Bacanora. Rare Earth Minerals owns a 12% stake in Bacanora.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Swiss lender Credit Suisse Group posted fourth-quarter 2014 net income attributable to shareholders of CHF921 million, versus a loss of CHF476 million last year. Reported core pre-tax income amounted to CHF1.18 billion francs, compared with a loss before taxes of CHF529 million francs in the 2013 fourth quarter, reflecting a 20% drop in total operating expenses and an 8% increase in net revenues. During the quarter, core net revenues improved 8% year-over-year to CHF6.38 billion from CHF5.92 billion.
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Shares of Baidu surged nearly 10% in extended trading on Wednesday after the Chinese Internet search giant reported results for the fourth quarter that missed analysts' expectations by a whisker. The company also provided revenue forecast for the fourth quarter, below Street view. However, profit for the quarter grew 16% from last year, despite soaring expenses, reflecting strong double-digit revenue growth.
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Cisco Systems, the world's largest computer networking gear maker, said its second quarter profit rose 68% from last year, helped by higher revenue and improved gross margin. The company's quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, also came in above analysts' expectations as did its quarterly revenue.
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German lender Commerzbank reported fourth-quarter pre-tax profit of EUR37 million, down from EUR90 million in the prior year. Revenue before loan loss provisions declined to EUR2.19 billion from EUR2.23 billion.
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French lender Societe Generale said fourth-quarter group net income surged to EUR511 million from EUR191 million in the previous year. When corrected for non-economic items such as revaluation of own financial liabilities and DVA, group net income was EUR460 million, while it totalled EUR451 million in 2013. Net banking income was EUR6.123 billion, compared to EUR5.696 billion in the prior year.
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Zurich Insurance Group said fourth-quarter attributable profit declined to USD858 million from USD1.074 billion reported last year. Business operating profit fell to USD812 million from last year's USD1.113 billion.
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Thursday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Paragon Group of Companies
Zoopla Property Group
EasyJet
GCP Infrastructure Investments
BlackRock North American Income Trust
Pressure Technologies
BATM Advanced Communications
Leed Resources
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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