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LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares were showing little direction in London early Friday. A flurry of broker rating changes were having the most impact, with little in the way of significant economic or corporate news.

In the FTSE 250, department store Debenhams was leading fallers, down 4.7%, after being cut to Sell from Hold by analysts at Investec.

Investec itself was expected to release a trading statement Friday.

In the FTSE 100, Smiths Group was up 0.8%, after being upgraded to Outperform by RBC Capital.

Also Friday is the deadline for firm offers by Home Retail Group by J Sainsbury and bid rival Steinhoff International Holdings.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.1% at 6,205.92
FTSE 250: flat at 16,853.77
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 705.59
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Hang Seng: closed up 0.8% at 20,671.63
Nikkei 225: closed down 1.3% at 16,724.81
DJIA: closed up 0.9% at 17,481.49
S&P 500: closed up 0.7% at 2,040.59
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GBP: down at USD1.4439 (USD1.4493)
EUR: down at USD1.1277 (USD1.1325)

GOLD: down at USD1,259.99 per ounce (USD1,263.47)
OIL (Brent): down at USD41.38 a barrel (USD41.52)

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

10:00 EU labour cost
12:00 UK BoE Quarterly Bulletin
12:30 Canada retail sales
12:30 Canada consumer price index
13:00 US Fed's William Dudley speech
14:00 US Reuters/Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index preliminary
15:00 US Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Rosengren speech
17:00 US Baker Hughes US oil rig count
18:00 US Fed's Bullard speech
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Germany's producer prices declined at a faster-than-expected pace in February, data from Destatis showed. The producer price index fell 3.0% year-over-year in February, exceeding economists' expectations for a 2.6% decrease. In January prices had dropped 2.4%. The measure has been falling since August 2013. The annual decline in February was largely driven by a 9.4% plunge in energy prices. Excluding energy, producer prices slid 0.7% yearly in February and edged down 0.1% from the preceding month.
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The EU and Turkey will attempt Friday to agree a contentious new plan to stem migration flows to Europe, in talks that German Chancellor Angela Merkel predicted would be "not entirely easy". The EU wants to recruit Ankara's help in dissuading migrants from crossing the Aegean and instead having them wait to be resettled in an orderly fashion out of Turkey. In exchange for its help, Ankara is seeking further refugee aid, as well as progress on visa-free access to the bloc for its citizens and on EU membership for the country. EU leaders late Thursday put the finishing touches to their negotiating position, after eight hours of summit talks in Brussels.
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It is unlikely that the EU and the US will wrap up their negotiations on a mammoth free trade deal before the US elects a new president in November, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said Thursday. There have long been fears that a change of leadership in the White House could stall progress on the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which would create the world's largest free trade area with 800 million people. "It now appears as if the TTIP arrangements will not be completed before the American presidential election," Kenny told journalists in Brussels on the margins of an EU summit, adding that this would probably create "a sense of vacuum."
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House Speaker Paul Ryan, Republican-Wisconsin, said it was "unacceptable" for Donald Trump to suggest there would be riots at the Republican convention if he is not chosen as the GOP nominee. "Nobody should say such things in my opinion because to even address or hint to violence is unacceptable," Ryan told reporters at his weekly press conference. Ryan acknowledged that the possibility of an open convention is "more likely" but said those involved "need to respect that".
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North Korea fired at least one ballistic missile on Friday, amid protests from Pyongyang against annual military drills by US and South Korean forces, military officials in Seoul said. One missile was fired at 5:55 am local time from the west of the country, and travelled around 800 kilometres across North Korean territory before landing in the sea off its east coast, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported, citing Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff. Around 22 minutes after the launch, radar signals picked up by the South Korean military indicated a likely second missile launched from the same location, Yonhap said.
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Swiss federal prosecutors announced the launch of criminal proceedings against former FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke on multiple allegations of breach of trust and other offences. Valcke served as right-hand man to FIFA boss Joseph Blatter for almost a decade. In February, the ethics committee of football's world governing body banned Valcke for 12 years. Thursday's action was initiated by two criminal complaints in connection with the ban raised by the FIFA ethics committee.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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NOMURA CUTS HSBC TO 'REDUCE' ('NEUTRAL') - PRICE TARGET 450 (475) PENCE
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NOMURA CUTS BARCLAYS TO 'NEUTRAL' ('BUY') - PRICE TARGET 185 (210) PENCE
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NOMURA CUTS STANDARD CHARTERED TO 'REDUCE' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 450 (480) PENCE
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BERENBERG RAISES ITV TO 'HOLD' ('SELL') - TARGET 240 PENCE
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BERENBERG RESUMES BALFOUR BEATTY WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 290 PENCE
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BERENBERG INITIATES CARILLION WITH 'HOLD' - TARGET 290 PENCE
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UBS CUTS CAIRN ENERGY TO 'NEUTRAL' ('BUY') - TARGET 200 (160) PENCE
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TRADERS: RBC CAPITAL RAISES SMITHS GROUP TO 'OUTPERFORM' ('SECTOR PERFORM')
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TRADERS: RBC CAPITAL CUTS ANTOFAGASTA TO 'UNDERPERFORM' ('SECTOR PERFORM')
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Investec Cuts Debenhams To Sell From Hold, Cuts Target To 67p From 70p
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Telecoms giant BT Group named Simon Lowth as its new finance director, with plans for him to join the company on July 4. Lowth, who was the finance director at gas producer BG Group prior to its takeover by Royal Dutch Shell, will take over from Tony Chanmugam, who announced his plan to step down in February. Chanmugam will remain in place for a handover period, after which he will move to focus on integrating mobile network EE into BT, following its acquisition of the business last year. Prior to working at BG, Lowth was the finance director at drugs giant AstraZeneca and he currently sits on the board of emerging markets bank Standard Chartered.
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Berkeley Group Holdings said it is continuing to see good underlying demand for its properties, with the London market remaining stable, and expects full-year results at the top end of its expectations. However, whilst Berkeley said it expects to deliver results for the year to end April at the top end of expectations, it said transaction levels at the upper end of the housing market have been affected by the "significant increase" in transaction taxes over the last 18 months, which it said "will have consequential effects on both social mobility and the supply of new homes".
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Associated British Foods said discussions are continuing over its potential acquisition of the remaining shares in Illovo Sugar that it does not already own. AB Foods, which owns discount fashion retailer Primark as well as British Sugar, along with agriculture and consumer goods businesses, currently holds a 51.4% interest in Illovo, a large South African sugar producer.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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TalkTalk Telecom Group on Thursday said it has launched voice biometric technology to its users, a move which will allow customers to give fewer personal details to prove their identity and which comes after the company was embroiled in a data breach last year. TalkTalk said the feature, TalkSafe, will identify customers using a number of unique characteristics of their voice, including the shape of larynx, vocal tract and nasal passage, alongside pronunciation, emphasis and speed of their speech. The feature will reduce the amount of sensitive personal information customers will have to disclose, TalkTalk said.
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Investor HICL Infrastructure said it plans to raise GBP25.0 million through a tap issuance. The net proceeds from the issue will be used to back HICL's funding requirements, it said, with the rest to be used to support further acquisitions. The company intends to issue 16.0 million shares under the issue, with the price set through a bookbuilding process run by broker Canaccord Genuity, which will start on Tuesday.
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The Restaurant Group said it has appointed former Spirit Pub Chief Executive Mike Tye as a non-executive director. Prior to his role at Spirit, which was taken over by fellow pub company Greene King last year, he was a director at Punch Taverns and also held a variety of managing director roles at Premier Inn and Costa owner Whitbread.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Advertising agency M&C Saatchi delivered higher pretax profit and revenue for 2015, with growth across its regional operations. The group said its pretax profit for the year to the end of December was GBP20.1 million, up 17% from the GBP17.2 million posted a year earlier, as revenue increased 6.0% to GBP178.9 million from GBP169.4 million. The firm said it will hike its final dividend 15% to 5.60 pence per share, taking its total dividend up by the same percentage to 7.21p.
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Property developer Capital & Regional said it has purchased a third property in Hemel Hempstead and said it now has "effective control of the town centre retail offer". Capital & Regional said it bought Fareham House in Hemel Hempstead in an off-market transaction for GBP7.8 million, adding the property is adjacent to the Marlowes shopping centre and Edmonds Parade, which it acquired in January and February. The property developer said it now has the opportunity to consolidate all three into a single dominant town centre scheme, which, in total, would provide 340,000 square feet of retail space and 1,200 car parking spaces.
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Genel Energy launched a bond buy-back programme and said proved reserves at the Tawke oil field in Iraq have increased. Genel said it has launched a tender offer to buy back senior unsecured callable bonds issued by its Genel Finance PLC unit. The offer is being done for cash management purposes and Genel said it intends to acquire a minimum of USD50.0 million of the USD730.0 million of bonds in issue. Genel also said DNO ASA, the operator of the Tawke field, has published estimated reserves for the site. Genel holds a 25% interest in the field. At the end of December, proved reserves at the field have been estimated at 387.0 million barrels of oil, up 21% on the 319.9 million at the end of 2014, driven by better confidence at DNO on primary recovery rates at the field.
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Lombard Risk Management said it has signed a technology license agreement with database software developer Oracle America. Lombard, which provides software to financial institutions to help with their regulatory and compliance requirements, said, under the agreement, Oracle America, part of New York-listed Oracle, is licensed to sell Lombard's AgileREPORTER technology. Lombard did not disclose financial details of the agreement.
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fastjet said it is taking legal advice for a letter which shareholder easyGroup Holdings Ltd immediately made public when sending it to the African low-cost airline on Thursday. Shares in fastjet were trading down 27% at 26.50 pence at the open on Friday, the worst performer in the AIM All-Share.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Viacom has received interest from three dozen companies for Paramount Pictures, even as Paramount is experiencing a particularly weak quarter at the box office, Chief Executive Philippe Dauman said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. The company is looking for a strategic partner that could help it in its international and digital businesses, as opposed to purely financial buyers such as private-equity firms, the report stated. In February, Viacom was in talks to sell a minority stake in its film division Paramount Pictures. Investors have been pushing Viacom to consider selling at least a stake in Paramount, as Viacom continues to struggle with poor ad sales and weak movie business. Dauman confirmed that the contenders "include some Asian interests," and reiterated his commitment to completing the transaction by the end of June, WSJ noted.
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Software giant Adobe Systems reported a surge in first-quarter profit as revenue jumped 25% with both earnings and revenues topping Wall Street estimates. Adobe raised its outlook for the full year sending its shares up 7% in after-hours trade. San Jose, California-based Adobe's first-quarter profit surged to USD254.3 million from USD84.9 million a year before. Adobe said its revenue for the quarter jumped 25% to USD1.38 billion from USD1.11 billion a year ago.
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Friday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Ecofin Water & Power Opportunities
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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