HSBC Holdings Share News (HSBA)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Share prices have opened narrowly mixed in London Tuesday, out-performing overnight markets in the US and Asia, though Greek debt negotiations remain an investor concern.

Shares in Reed Elsevier, set to be renamed RELX on July 1, lead FTSE 100 gainers, together with Wm Morrison Supermarkets, both up 1.3%. Barclays raised RELX shares to Overweight from Equal-Weight. Price reductions announced by Morrisons on Monday were well received by analysts.

In the FTSE 250, Pets At Home is the biggest loser, down 4.2%, after KKR sold a further 108.0 million shares in Pets at Home Group, a 21.6% stake in the pet product retailer it listed last year.

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 6,797.19
FTSE 250: down 0.1% at 17,868.01
AIM ALL-SHARE: flat at 773.83
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Hang Seng: down 1.2% at 26,998.89
Nikkei 225: closed down 1.8% at 20,096.30
DJIA: closed down 0.5% at 17,766.55
S&P 500: closed down 0.7% at 2,079.28
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GBP: down at USD1.5309
EUR: flat at USD1.1278

GOLD: up at USD1,177.40 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD63.03 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Tuesday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in BST)

09:30 UK Trade Balance
10:00 UK Inflation Report Hearings
10:00 EU Gross Domestic Product
13:55 US Redbook index
14:00 US NFIB Business Optimism Index
15:00 US JOLTS Job Openings
15:00 US Wholesale Inventories
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Consumer prices in China were up 1.2% on year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics said. That was slightly below expectations for 1.3%, and it was down from 1.5% in April. Food prices were up 1.6% on year in May, while non-food prices gained 1.0%. On a monthly basis, inflation eased 0.2% - the same rate as in April. The bureau also said that producer prices were down 4.6% on year - beneath forecasts for -4.5% but unchanged from the previous month.
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The M2 money stock in Japan climbed 4.0% on year in May, the Bank of Japan said - coming in at JPY906.7 trillion. That exceeded forecasts for an increase of 3.6%, which would have been unchanged from the April reading.
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US President Barack Obama called on both sides in Athens' debt talks to show flexibility to end the crisis, but he joined German Chancellor Angela Merkel in calling on cash-strapped Greece to introduce tough economic reforms. Greece and its international creditors must show "sufficient flexibility" in order to end the country's economic crisis and head off the threat of Athens defaulting, the US leader told a press conference marking the end of Group of Seven (G7) summit in southern Germany. Athens' battle to secure a deal with its creditors to unlock much-needed cash in exchange for reforms has emerged as a key issue at major international meetings, including the two-day G7 leaders summit. In her comments at its conclusion, Merkel said the G7 leaders wanted to see Greece remain a eurozone member state. But she warned that time was running out for the nation to conclude a deal with its creditors - the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and Athens' eurozone partners.
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Ukraine on Monday prohibited Russian troops from entering or leaving the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria via neighbouring Ukraine. This gravely isolates landlocked Transnistria, which has functioned as a de-facto autonomous state since the early 1990s with crucial economic and military support from Russia. Now air travel seems to be the Russian military's only mode of transportation to the region, which Moldova considers illegally occupied by Russia.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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CREDIT SUISSE RAISES DIAGEO TO 'NEUTRAL' ('UNDERPERFORM') - PRICE TARGET 1800 PENCE
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TRADERS: HSBC RAISES IAG TO 'BUY' ('HOLD')
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BARCLAYS RAISES REED ELSEVIER TO 'OVERWEIGHT' ('EW') - TARGET 1,225 (1,135)P
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SOCGEN RAISES BHP BILLITON TO 'BUY' ('HOLD') - PRICE TARGET 1600 (1700) PENCE
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SOCGEN CUTS ANGLO AMERICAN TO 'HOLD' ('BUY') - TARGET 1090 (1540) PENCE
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SOCGEN CUTS RIO TINTO TO 'HOLD' ('BUY') - PRICE TARGET 3100 (4000) PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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HSBC Holdings said it will take action to save billions of dollars in costs by 2017, building on the costs Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver has already slashed from the group's annual bill. The London-based banking group said it wants to save a further USD4.5 billion to USD5.0 billion by 2017, with a one-off cost of between USD4.0 billion and USD4.5 billion to achieve those cuts. The group confirmed it intends to sell operations in Turkey and Brazil, though it will keep a presence in the South American country to help serve large corporate clients. It will axe between 22,000 and 25,000 full-time employees between 2014 and 2017, not including Brazil and Turkey, from the 258,000 employed in the whole group at the end of 2014.
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Old Mutual is preparing to sell a further stake in OM Asset Management, the boutique asset manager it spun off in a float on the New York Stock Exchange in the autumn of 2014. Old Mutual said it will used the proceeds of the sale for general corporate purposes. The pricing of the offering has yet to be determined, with the number of shares to be sold by Old Mutual also still to be determined. The offering is to be made through global coordinators and joint book-running managers BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Credit Suisse.
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South32 said it has decided to delay restarting three of the four high-carbon ferromaganese furnaces at its joint venture operation in South Africa with fellow mining giant Anglo American. South32, a recently created spin-off company from BHP Billiton, said it made the decision to delay the restart of the furnaces at the South African Samancor manganese joint venture due to the decline in high-carbon ferromanganese prices, which have continued to decline in 2015.
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Sky Deutschland said the cash compensation payable to minority shareholders for the transfer of their Sky Deutschland shares has been set at EUR6.68 per share. This follows the completion in November 2014 of Sky PLC's offer for Sky Deutschland and the announcement in February that, as the holder of 96.05% of the shares in Sky Deutschland, Sky was initiating the squeeze out of the remaining 3.95% minority shareholdings. The squeeze out resolution will be approved at an Extraordinary General Meeting of Sky Deutschland scheduled for July 22.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Just Eat said 41.33% of the shares available under its recently-announced open offer were taken up, and the remainder have been placed so that it raised about GBP445 million to fund the company's acquisition of Menulog Group. The company announced the open offer and placing last month and the open offer closed on Monday. It got valid acceptances for 43.6 million shares under the open offer, and the remaining 61.8 million in the offer were taken up under its placing.
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UK Commercial Property Trust said it has agreed to sell 176-206 Kensington High Street, London and has disposed of 134-138 North Street, Brighton in two separate transactions for a total consideration of GBP82.7 million, which is marginally ahead of their aggregate valuation as at March 31.
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RPC Group reported higher profits and earnings for its last financial year, helped by acquisitions, and said the current year has got off to a satisfactory start despite adverse exchange rate movements and a time lag in passing through higher polymer prices. The plastic products designer and maker reported a pretax profit for the year to March 31 of GBP67.1 million, up from GBP59.0 million a year earlier, as revenue increased to GBP1.22 billion from GBP1.05 billion. Its closely-watched pretax profit excluding restructuring, impairment charges exceptional items rose to GBP119.0 million from GBP89.5 million. It raised its full-year dividend to 15.4 pence from 13.8p.
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Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts sold a further 108.0 million shares in Pets at Home Group, a 21.6% stake in the pet product retailer it listed last year, at 267 pence per share. BofA Merrill Lynch, the bookrunner on the accelerated bookbuild placing, said that KKR's sale of the 21.6% stake the company raised about GBP288 million for the private equity firm. KKR will hold a 24.6% stake in Pets At Home on completion of the placing.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Plus500 said work is continuing to enable to resume trading those UK customers whose accounts were frozen due to the contracts-for-difference trading provider's work to implement anti-money laundering procedures. Plus500, which is the subject of a takeover offer from FTSE 250-listed Playtech, said that 5,205 customers whose accounts had been unfrozen have resumed trading, equivalent to 61% of the total number that are free to trade, with 457 customers cashing out all their funds. However, the company said it is "too early to anticipate the ongoing behaviour of those customers who are now free to trade".
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Oxford Instruments said it expects to return to organic growth in its current financial year, as it posted a swing to a pretax loss in its recently ended year, hit by tightening sanctions on Russia and a weaker performance in Japan. The technology tools and systems company reported a pretax loss of GBP9.7 million for the year to end-March, swung from a pretax profit of GBP24.0 million a year before, as a rise in revenue to GBP385.5 million from GBP360.1 million was offset by an increase in research and development costs.
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Mariana Resources said it has received further high-grade copper and gold intercepts from the ongoing drill programme at the Hot Maden project in Turkey. The miner reported intercepts from hole 10 of 100.2 metres at 5.6 grammes of gold per tonne and 1.3% copper from 81.8 metres, including 43 metres at 11.7 grammes per tonne and 2.2% copper from 98.7 metres. Additional intercepts of 47 metres at 0.7% zinc and 40 metres at 0.56% zinc were discovered to the east of the gold and copper zones, it said.
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Croma Security Solutions Group said it had won three new contracts in the UK, including a further three-year deal worth between GBP1.1 million and GBP1.2 million to provide maintenance, servicing, installation and upgrade work for ODEON cinemas. It also signed a further five-year contract with Hilton Hotels to continue routine maintenance of its revenue parking systems and servicing. It expects this deal total GBP0.9 million over the five years, with the possibility of additional revenue for upgrade works over the tenure of the contract. Croma said it also won a deal to instal a secure Fastvein biometric access control system into "the second largest Bank in the UK", working in partnership with Hitachi, for an undisclosed value.
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John Menzies bolstered its logistical services arm by buying Scotland-based AJG Parcelsfor GBP7.5 million in cash, a buy that moves it into a parcels market being driven by the increase in online shopping. Menzies said AJG services over 3 million parcels a year in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, and is a so-called "neutral consolidator" that works in partnership with national parcel carriers to make the final mile delivery.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles's Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne has approached hedge funds and other potential allies to compel General Motors into a merger, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Contacts with activist investors have yet to land a patron, the report added. A similar strategy may be employed with at least one European auto manufacturer. Even as the Italian-American auto maker is profitable, its operating margins are weak.
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Apple is going on the offensive in the music streaming business with new offerings announced at its worldwide developer conference in San Francisco. The company's first streaming service will be available through the Apple Music app and will be available initially for a three-month free trial starting June 30, it said. Apple also unveiled other features of its music offering, including Beats One, a live DJ-helmed radio station build on Beats Music, the subscription service Apple got in its USD3 billion purchase of Beats Electronics last year. The service will cost 9.99 dollars a month, or 14.99 a month for a family membership, and will have a catalog of 30 million songs. It will be available in 100 countries and soon for Android devices.
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Apple said that starting next month, Apple Pay will be available to customers in the UK. At launch, over 250,000 locations will accept Apple Pay, with support from eight of the UK's most established banks, across all of the major credit and debit card networks. Apple Pay will support UK credit and debit cards from American Express, MasterCard and Visa Europe, among others.
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Israeli generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries said it remains committed to its USD40 billion takeover bid for Mylan NV, which has been fending off the unsolicited bid. In a letter to Mylan executive chairman Robert Coury, Teva said it has a clear roadmap to deliver on its proposal that will create substantial long-term value.
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Newmont Mining said it has agreed to acquire the Cripple Creek & Victor gold mine in Colorado from AngloGold Ashanti. Newmont will purchase the producing operation for USD820 million in cash at closing, plus a 2.5% net smelter return royalty for gold production from potential future underground ore. The deal will be funded with net proceeds generated from a common equity issuance of 29 million shares, and supplemented with cash from Newmont's balance sheet.
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Tuesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Kingfisher
AA
WPP
China Africa Resources
DDD Group
RusPetro
Hydrodec Group
Cayenne Trust
NBNK Investments
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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