Esure Group Share News (ESUR)

LONDON (Alliance News) - With little in the way of significant company news or economic data early Wednesday, markets continued to watch the security situation in France, where a police raid in a Paris suburb left several dead and a bomb detonated.

Among individual stocks, Hikma Pharmaceuticals led the FTSE 100, up 2.3%, after receiving clearance from the US FDA for its plant in Portugal.

Hunting led mid-caps, up 3.5%, after Goldman Sachs added the oil services firm to its Conviction Buy list.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.5% at 6,236.25
FTSE 250: down 0.2% at 17,047.22
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.1% at 728.29
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Hang Seng: closed down 0.3% at 22,188.26
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.1% at 19,649.18
DJIA: closed flat at 17,489.50
S&P 500: closed down 0.1% at 2,050.44
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GBP: soft at USD1.5207 (USD1.5218)
EUR: firm at USD1.0651 (USD1.0640)

GOLD: lower at USD1,070.60 per ounce (USD1,074.32)
OIL (Brent): flat at USD44.08 a barrel (USD44.11)

(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Wednesday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in GMT)

10:00 EU Construction Output
10:00 Switzerland ZEW Survey - Expectations
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
13:00 US Fed's Lockhart speech
13:00 US FOMC Member Mester speech
13:00 US Fed's William Dudley speech
13:30 US Building Permits and Housing Starts
13:30 Canada Housing Starts
14:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks
18:00 US FOMC Minutes
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A raid in a Paris suburb left several dead early Wednesday amid reports of gunfire and explosions as police hunted the alleged mastermind of last week's terrorist attacks. At least two people were killed, according to broadcaster RTL, with Le Monde reporting three dead. A female suicide bomber blew herself up during the raid, RTL said on Twitter. The raid was aimed at Abdelhamid Abaaoud, suspected of planning the suicide bomb and gun attacks that left 129 people dead late Friday, AFP reported citing an unnamed police source.
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A second assailant from Friday's Paris terrorist attacks could be at large, dpa was told by sources close to the investigation who called it a "strong theory". The French news agency AFP reported that a video exists showing the suspect. The newspaper Le Monde reported that witnesses said three people were in the car used to attack restaurants and bars in the east of the city. Investigators are looking into whether the third unknown person was with the brothers Brahim and Salah Abdeslam. The 26-year-old Salah is currently being sought internationally, while Brahim blew himself up during the attacks.
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Two Air France flights headed to Paris from the US were diverted on Tuesday due to anonymous bomb threats, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The passengers and crew were safely moved out. Flight 65, an Airbus A-380 which left from Los Angeles, was taken to Salt Lake City, and passengers and crew were taken off the plane. The plane reportedly carried 497 passengers and crew. Another flight, Flight 55 left from Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. and was diverted to Halifax International Airport in Nova Scotia. The plane had 262 passengers and crew members on board.
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The UK's financial watchdog set out the terms of a study to investigate the UK's GBP6.6 trillion asset management industry, with competition and costs to be probed by the regulator as scrutiny of the wholesale financial markets intensifies. The Financial Conduct Authority wants to publish interim findings in summer 2016 and a final report by the early 2017.
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UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd is expected to say on Wednesday that the remaining coal-fired power stations in Britain will be closed down by 2025 at the latest, the BBC reported. Rudd is set to say that relying on "polluting" coal is "perverse" and will outline a push to make gas "central" to the UK's energy future, with the building of new gas-fired power stations an "imperative".
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Political parties in Northern Ireland said they resolved a power-sharing crisis on Tuesday after 10 weeks of talks backed by the British and Irish governments. "This package has rightly been driven by Northern Ireland's political leaders. I pay tribute to their work and leadership," said Theresa Villiers, Britain's secretary of state for Northern Ireland. Charlie Flanagan, Ireland's foreign minister, said it was "another milestone agreement moving Northern Ireland towards a better future," while British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed it as a "turning point".
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US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen used a letter oto slam a Republican-backed bill to overhaul the central bank, arguing such a move would politicise monetary policy, threaten the ability of the Fed to avert future financial crises and cause economic damage, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a letter to Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Yellen said the bill "would severely impair the Federal Reserve's ability to carry out its congressional mandate and would be a grave mistake, detrimental to the economy and the American people." The House bill would make the Fed adopt a mathematical formula for determining the appropriate level for its benchmark short-term interest rate and would curb the Fed's emergency lending powers. The House is planning to table the bill for a vote on Thursday.
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The Obama administration said Syrian refugees are protected by the US Constitution and are free to move anywhere in the country once they have passed "stringent" security checks and have been allowed into the US. The Obama administration officials were reacting to a decision by the governors of 31 US states who have come out against allowing Syrian refugees to resettle in their states in the wake of last week's terrorism attacks in Paris. All but one of the governors are Republican, and Republican members of Congress also have called for a "pause" in the resettlement programme.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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GOLDMAN RAISES ANGLO AMERICAN TO 'NEUTRAL' ('SELL') - TARGET 185 PENCE
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GOLDMAN RAISES ANTOFAGASTA TO 'NEUTRAL' ('SELL') - TARGET 440 PENCE
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GOLDMAN RAISES KAZ MINERALS TO 'NEUTRAL' ('SELL') - TARGET 110 PENCE
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GOLDMAN RAISES HUNTING TO CONVICTION BUY LIST (BUY) - TARGET 546.40 (560.10) P
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TRADERS: PEEL HUNT CUTS ESURE GROUP TO 'HOLD' ('BUY')
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Barclays will pay at least another USD100.0 million in a settlement with the New York financial regulator to resolve allegations that it rigged foreign exchange markets, Reuters reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. The source said Barclays may reach a settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services by next month. The bank already agreed to pay USD120.0 million earlier this month to settle a private case against it in the US in which it was accused of conspiring with rivals to rig the Libor benchmark interest rate.
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Federal prosecutors are actively pursuing criminal cases against executives from Royal Bank of Scotland Group and JPMorgan Chase & Co for allegedly selling flawed mortgage securities, The Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the probes. Officials are working to establish that the bankers ignored warnings from associates that they were packaging too many shaky mortgages into investment offerings and are weighing whether they can prove that constituted fraud, the Journal said. At RBS, prosecutors are scrutinizing a USD2.2 billion deal that repackaged home mortgages into bonds in 2007. In a 2013 civil settlement with RBS, the Securities and Exchange Commission described the lead banker on that deal, whom it didn't name, as trying to push it through over concerns of the diligence department.
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Hikma Pharmaceuticals said it has received a letter from the US Food and Drug Administration closing out a previous warning letter it had received from the regulator. Hikma said the letter closes out the warning letter is received from the FDA in October 2014 regarding its injectables manufacturing plant in Portugal. The company said the FDA has accepted the remedial actions it took to fix the problems at the manufacturing plant, which had centred on environmental monitoring issues.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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LondonMetric Property said it has struck a deal to buy a DHL distribution warehouse in Reading for GBP28.8 million. The property investor said the building its let to DHL, the logistics company, for another ten years at a rent of GBP1.8 million a year.
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Publishing, events and information company Informa said trading remains in line with its last update on October 20 and said it has sold two conference businesses in the Netherlands.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Miner South32 said the South African mines run by its Samancor Manganese joint venture will remain closed until a strategic review of the business is completed. Production was suspended at the mines on November 2 following a fatality at the Mamatwan mine. South32 said the mines, based in the Kalahari basin, will have to be reconfigured in order to secure their long-term viability and a consultation at the mines is ongoing and likely to restart in January 2016. South32 said while production will be severely hit by the suspension of the mines in financial 2016, rail and customer commitments will be met by drawing down inventory.
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UK Mail Group said the time it will take to resolve the problems in its Parcels business will hit its outlook for its next financial year, though it affirmed is guidance for the current year despite pretax profit for the first half plunging due to higher costs and one-offs. UK Mail said the longer-than-expected timescale for resolving the operational issues in its Parcels network and the consequential impact this will have on its earnings both in its 2016 and 2017 financial years and have forced its outlook for the year to March 2017 to be "softened slightly". The group cut its interim dividend payout to 5.5 pence per share, down from 7.3p. It said it considers it "prudent" to rebase the dividend given the challenges it currently faces.
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Office services company ISG said it has secured a contract to build two new buildings, including the BBC Cymru Wales Broadcasting House in Cardiff. It also will handle the construction of a new office building in the Central Square regeneration site in the Welsh capital. The deal will be worth GBP80.0 million to ISG, it said.
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Breedon Aggregates said it has continued to trade well and that earnings for the full year will come in at the top end of market expectations, as it struck a GBP336.0 million deal to buy Hope Construction Materials. Breedon said it has entered into a deal with Cortolina Investments Sarl to buy Hope for GBP336.0 million in cash and shares. It will pay the GBP202.0 million cash consideration through a new GBP300.0 million revolving credit facility and through a GBP41.0 million equity placing.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Monsanto is considering whether to begin another attempt to acquire Syngenta after state-owned China National Chemical made a bid for the world's largest pesticide maker, according media reports. Monsanto is discussing internally the merits of a new offer as well as opportunities to acquire crop-chemical assets from other companies, Chief Operating Officer Brett Begemann reportedly said in St Louis ahead of the company's investor day presentations.
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Air Liquide has agreed to buy US-based Airgas in a deal worth USD13.4 billion including debt, as the French company expands further into the US market. Airgas shareholders will receive USD143 a share in cash for all outstanding shares of Airgas. The offer represents a premium of 51% to Airgas' one month average share price, prior to the announcement of the transaction.
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Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Sabien Technology Group
ScS Group
Henderson Eurotrust
Town Centre Securities
Jupiter US Smalller Companies
Allergy Therapeutics
Orosur Mining
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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