International Airlines Share News (IAG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares have opened softly Wednesday, on continued concerns about the prospect of Scottish independence and following negative leads from US and Asian markets.

Kingfisher leads FTSE 100 gainers, up 2.8%, despite posting a drop in first-half profit. The DIY retail also announced that Chief Executive Officer Ian Cheshire will retire at the end of January 2015, to be succeeded by the CEO of Castorama France, Veronique Laury.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 6,824.24
FTSE 250: down 0.2% at 15,758.98
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 777.61
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Hang Seng: down 1.7% at 24,753.07
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.3% at 15,788.78
DJIA: closed down 0.6% at 17,013.87
S&P 500: closed down 0.7% at 1,988.44
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.6133
EUR-USD: down at USD1.2932

GOLD: up at USD1,256.57 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD98.90 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Wednesday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times British Summer Time)

12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
13:30 Canada Capacity Utilization
14:45 UK Inflation Report Hearings
15:00 US Wholesale Inventories
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks
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Asset managers, investors and pension savers are moving billions of pounds out of Scotland amid rising concerns about the financial consequences of a Yes vote in next week’s independence referendum, the Financial Times reports citing industry executives. In a further sign of nerves, “exit clauses” are being inserted into commercial property contracts in Scotland to allow buyers to scrap deals or renegotiate prices if voters opt for independence, the FT added, citing leading advisers to the sector.
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US President Barack Obama urged leaders of Congress in a meeting Tuesday to support his military efforts to target the Islamic State, the White House says. Leaders from both parties from the House of Representatives and Senate "expressed their support for efforts to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL," spokesman Josh Earnest says. Obama is to lay out his strategy for targeting the terrorist group in a speech Wednesday evening and told lawmakers that although he has the authority to act on his own, efforts would be more effective with their support.
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Five Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 33 wounded since a ceasefire took effect in the country's east, the National Security and Defence Council said Tuesday in Kiev. Pro-Russian separatists fired 89 times on government forces, but by and large the truce is holding, council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said. The EU was to continue deliberations Wednesday about when to implement new sanctions against Russia, in response to Moscow's support for militants in Ukraine.
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Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 broke up in the air, probably after being hit by "a large number of high-energy objects," according to a preliminary Dutch report Tuesday on the crash. Images of the MH17 wreckage show that it was pierced from the outside in numerous places, causing the Boeing 777 to break up in flight July 17 over eastern Ukraine, the report said. The Dutch Safety Board, which is leading the international investigation, found no evidence the crash resulted from a technical problem or crew error.
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Two nuclear reactors in Japan passed new safety standards, for the first time since the nuclear disaster at Fukushima three and a half years ago. The move brings Japan closer to restarting domestic nuclear power generation after the government shut down all of its nuclear plants in the wake of the disaster, which followed an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
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A leading index for Japan continued to decline at a stable rate in July, results of a survey by the Conference Board showed. The Conference Board leading economic index, a measure of future economic conditions, fell 0.8% month-over-month in July, the same rate as in June. In May, the index had decreased 1.2%.
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Core machine orders in Japan climbed 3.5% on month in July, the Cabinet Office said - worth 771.7 billion yen. The headline figure was shy of forecasts for an increase of 4.0% following the 8.8% spike in June. On a yearly basis, core machine orders were up 1.1% - topping expectations for a gain of 0.5% following the 3.0% contraction in the previous month.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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Investec Upgrades RBS To Hold From Sell, Ups Target Price To 355p From 340p
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DAVY RAISES IAG TO 'OUTPERFORM' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 460 PENCE
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EXANE BNP CUTS STANDARD CHARTERED TO 'UNDERPERFORM' ('NEUTRAL')
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GOLDMAN RAISES AFRICAN BARRICK GOLD TO 'NEUTRAL' ('SELL') - TARGET 230 (210) P
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TRADERS: LIBERUM INITIATES BODYCOTE WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 830 PENCE
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IN THE KNOW: Numis Initiates Zoopla With Add Rating
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Barratt Developments said it plans to return around GBP950 million to shareholders over the next three years, as it more than doubled its final dividend following a strong year underpinned by recovery in the UK housing market. The capital return plan came as the housebuilder posted pretax of GBP390.6 million for the year to June 30, up from GBP192.0 million a year earlier, as revenue rose 21% to GBP3.16 billion from GBP2.60 billion. Barratt, which will drop out of the FTSE 100 on September 22, said it ramped up housing completions in response to consumer demand.
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London Stock Exchange Group said it has continued to see an "encouraging" pipeline of companies looking to raise capital on its markets, while reporting that revenue from trading in secondary markets in August increased on the same period last year. In addition, the group said that both FTSE and LCH.Clearnet performed well in August. The group said trends are "broadly unchanged" since August 22, when it priced a three-for-11 rights issue to part fund the USD2.70 billion acquisition of Frank Russell Co from Northwestern Mutual at 1,295 pence per share, raising GBP938.0 million net. The news comes ahead of a general meeting scheduled to start at 0930 BST at which shareholders will be given the chance to approve the stock exchange's deal for Frank Russell.
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DIY retailer Kingfisher posted a drop in first-half profit on the back of weaker sales, while at the same time announcing that Chief Executive Officer Ian Cheshire will retire at the end of January 2015, to be succeeded by the CEO of Castorama France, Veronique Laury. The home improvement retailer, and owner B&Q and Screwfix cite continued weakness in France and Poland and some broader challenges in the second quarter, as the reasons behind its pretax profit fall of 6.5% to GBP375 million for the 26 weeks to August 2, down from GBP401 million last year.
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Shares in Sports Direct International dropped after the retailer said sales grew more than 12% in the first quarter of its new financial year, as strong growth continues to be driven by its sports retail business, but said sales were held back by England's disappointing performance in the World Cup in June.
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Meggitt said its Meggitt Training Systems subsidiary has won an additional contract to support the US Army's Targetry Systems programme at TACOM, the US Army Contracting Command based in Warren, Michigan. The new deal for the FTSE 100-listed engineering group is worth USD17.7 million over the next 12 months, bringing the total value of the programme for Meggitt to USD30.5 million.
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Liberty Global, the owner of Virgin Media and which holds a minority stake in ITV, is looking to make further investments in the UK to complement its existing UK holdings, the Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday. Jim Ryan, Liberty Global's chief strategy officer, said during a speech at a Royal Television Society conference that the group is looking to "find some portfolio investments we can use to enhance the Virgin Media acquisition". Ryan refused to be drawn on speculation regarding the possibility of Liberty increasing its stake in ITV, the Telegraph said. Liberty bought a 6.4% stake in the FTSE 100-listed broadcaster for GBP481 million earlier this year from British Sky Broadcasting Group.
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Lloyds Banking Group said Tuesday it has sold its interest in Doncaster-based homebuilder and social housing provider Keepmoat. "The sale sees us successfully exit our equity position on Keepmoat, having been a lender to the company for nearly a decade. We are also pleased that we will continue to support them with banking facilities going forward, as they look towards the next stage of their development," Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking said in a statement provided to Alliance News. Lloyds sold Keepmoat to Sun Capital and TDR Capital, two private equity groups, for an enterprise value - equity plus net debt - of about GBP400.0 million, the Financial Times reported.
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Standard & Poor's and Markit have emerged as the final bidders in the race to buy the index business being offloaded by Barclays, a deal which could fetch more than USD1 billion, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The FTSE 100-listed bank has narrowed the bidder list to S&P Dow Jones Indices, the index provider owned by McGraw-Hill Financial Inc, and Markit, the financial information services provider, following an auction which also drew the attention of companies including MSCI Inc and Bloomberg LP, Reuters said, citing people familiar with the matter.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Balfour Beatty said its US construction services business has won a USD116 million, or GBP70 million, contract to build a new comprehensive high school in Denton, Texas, building on a relationship that has seen it build 49 educational facilities in Denton and neighbouring towns over the past 14 years.
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Pub company Greene King said its like-for-like sales in the first 18 weeks of the year showed muted growth against tough comparatives from last year and a disappointing World Cup this year, though it expects further improvement in the rest of the year as momentum for its Pub Partners and Brewing & Brands businesses continues. The FTSE 250-listed company said like-for-like sales in its retail arm were up 0.4% in the first 18 weeks.
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Premier Oil said that the subsea oil storage tank, jacket and topsides have been successfully installed at its Solan oil field and it will now start the offshore hook up and commissioning programme. In a statement, the company said the precise timing of first oil from the field will depend on the progress of the hook up and commissioning. Premier Oil has a 60% operator interest in the Solan field in the UK North Sea, with the rest owned by Chrysaor.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Orogen Gold said it has raised GBP1.1 million after conditionally placing 1.02 billion new shares with existing and new investors, as it looks to advance the exploration programme at its Mutsk gold project in Armenia. The AIM-listed gold explorer said the shares were conditionally placed at 0.11 pence each and represented about 30% of its enlarged share capital.
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Zytronic saw its shares rise early Wednesday after it said it expects its pretax profit in the current financial year to be significantly above market expectations. In a statement, the maker of touch technology products said the increased sales of larger touch products and the significant improvement in margins that it had reported when it released its interim results in May had continued into the second half of the year. It said revenue is currently about 8% above the corresponding period of its last financial year.
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Thorntons FY Profit Before Tax And Items Up 60% To 7.5M From Restated GBP4.7M; Says Retail Division Like-For-Like Sales Growth 1.1%, Best Performance In 6 Years; Says Confident Of Profit Growth In Current Full Year In Line With Expectations
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Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings said it had bought Italian manual immunoenzymatic assay developer Diametra, an acquisition that will bolster its endocrinology pipeline and give it additional development and manufacturing capabilities. It didn't say how much it has paid for the business, which is based in Umbria and has a staff of about 25.
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Anglogold Ashanti said it will spinoff its international gold mining operations into a new company that will have its main listing in London, while the parent company will consider branching into other commodities apart from gold. The parent company also said it is contemplating raising about USD2.1 billion in a rights issue to bring down its debt.
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Accesso Technology H1 Pretax Loss Of USD37M Vs USD354M Profit; Adjusted Operating Profit Of USD1.3M Vs USD1.2M; Revenue Of USD25.9M Vs USD21.0M
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McBride FY Pretax Loss Of GBP21.3M Vs GBP9.0M Profit; Revenue Of GBP744.2M Vs GBP761.4M; Swings To Loss On UK Reorganisation Costs; Says Trading Since Year End In Line With Expectations; Says Revenue Hit By Contract Manufacturing Business, UK Promotions
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Computer giant Apple on Tuesday introduced its highly anticipated wearable device, the Apple Watch, and two bigger iPhones in a festive unveiling at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts in Cupertino California. In addition, the company revealed its new financial App called Apple Pay, which as early as October will allow customers to conduct business on the phone with a mere tap. At the end of the introduction by chief executive Tim Cook, the music group U2 rocked the audience with a performance of a song from their new album, Songs of Innocence.
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Software giant Microsoft is close to striking a deal to acquire Swedish videogame maker Mojang AB, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday. The deal, valued in excess of USD2 billion, could be announced as early as Wednesday morning or sometime later in the week.
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Franco-Dutch carrier Air France-KLM said Tuesday it has settled an entire derivative transaction on the shares of Spanish travel technology company Amadeus IT Holding SA and also launched the sale of a 1% stake in the company. It said these operations will generate proceeds of EUR339 million in cash.
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Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Trinity Capital
Hornby
Greene King
Sports Direct International
BATM Advanced Communications
ITM Power
London Stock Exchange Group
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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