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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Friday.
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COMPANIES
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Barclays PLC is undertaking a "full internal investigation" into allegations by the New York Attorney General that the bank grew its dark pool by operating it to the benefit of high-frequency traders despite telling clients and investors that they were diving into safe waters, according to a letter sent to colleagues by Chief Executive Antony Jenkins. The complaint accused Barclays of presenting its dark pool as having special safeguards to protect clients from "aggressive" or predatory high-frequency traders, despite the lawsuit claiming that the dark pool was "full of of predators - there at Barclays' invitation". The lawsuit also alleges that Barclays falsified marketing material, in one case removing a high-frequency trading firm that was then the dark pool's largest participant from documents intended for institutional investors.
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Large banks have begun to pull business from Barclays' dark pool in the wake of New York State's top law enforcer filing fraud charges against it earlier this week, the Financial Times reports without saying where it got the information. According to the FT, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, and Royal Bank of Canada were among the institutions to withdraw from LX. The FT said that asset manager AllianceBernstein has also said it had stopped using the Barclays dark pool, the newspaper said.
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OAO Rosneft signed its second agreement with BP PLC since sanctions were imposed on the Russian oil company's chief executive over the crisis in Ukraine, a five-year deal to supply BP with oil products or oil. In a statement, the Russian company said it will supply BP with up to 12 million tonnes of oil products, which can be substituted with oil. Deliveries will start by July. The deal assumes a pre-payment of at least USD1.5 billion through a loan arranged by banks, Rosneft said. It didn't name the banks.
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United Utilities Group PLC said it has resubmitted its business plan for the period 2015-20 after regulator Ofwat said its proposals on risk and reward were not in line with its expectations. UK water companies submitted business plans at the end of 2013 setting out their proposed investments plans for the next five years and how much they plan to charge customers. United Utilities said, following Ofwat's risk and reward guidance, it is now proposing an average real term bill decrease of 2.3% for household customers across the five-year period. This compares with an average real term bill decrease of 1.7% in its initial plan, reflecting the combined changes of a lower cost of capital and expenditure revisions.
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Acron Group said it has formed a joint venture with Rio Tinto Group PLC to develop potash properties in Saskatchewan, Canada, and the next steps for the project include continuing an environmental assessment and developing a pre-feasibility study. The joint venture holds nine potash permits covering 586,000 acres in the southern region of the district, it said. The work undertaken so far has focused on permit KP 405, known as the Albany Project, where 13 wells have been drilled, a 3-D seismic survey completed, and a 43-101 compliant resource study prepared.
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National Express Group PLC retained its c2c Essex Thameside rail franchise for a further 15 years, after committing to investments of GBP160 million in new trains, more peak-time services, station improvements, and adding free wifi on trains and at stations. In a statement, the UK government's Department for Transport said the new franchise will run until November 2029. The government said National Express has agreed to invest in 17 new trains, adding 25,000 more seats each week during morning peak time, as well as investing over GBP30 million in improving stations including Fenchurch Street in London and Barking. The operator has also committed to hitting tough new targets for punctuality, with more than 90% of services required to reach their destination within one minute of the timetable by December 2018, the government said.
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SuperGroup PLC took back the rights to trading its Superdry brand in Denmark, Norway and Finland when it bought Scandinavian distributor SMAC Group. It didn't provide any financial details about the acquisition, but said it paid for the deal with cash from internal resources. "The acquisition of the distribution rights will assist the group in meeting its ambitious plans for the region, by freeing it to invest its own capital in the store roll-out, improve margins on the wholesale operation and retain local operational and management expertise," SuperGroup said in a statement. Based in Aarhus, Denmark, SMAC has four of its own retail stores, eight franchise stores and a wholesale business.
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IMImobile PLC and CDialogues PLC both saw their shares rise in early dealings after initial public offerings on AIM Friday, as energy technology company Intelligent Energy Holdings PLC added itself to the IPO pipeline for London's main market. IMImobile Ltd is a London-based technology company which provides mobile communication software and services for businesses. It hit its target of raising GBP30 million in gross proceeds in its IPO, money it will use to drive internal growth and look at potential acquisitions. It had an initial market capitalisation of GBP56.7 million at the IPO price. CDialogues raised GBP1.25 million and has an initial market capitalisation of GBP13.23 million.
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MARKETS
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The FTSE 100 trades modestly higher, but looks set to close the week firmly in the red, as London shares struggle to recover from heavy losses posted at the beginning of the week.
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FTSE 100: up 0.1% at 6743.6
FTSE 250: up 0.03% at 15652.15
AIM ALL-SHARE: flat at 780.15
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The pound continues to hold firm against the dollar after GDP figures showed the UK economic recovery has started to broaden.
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GBP-USD: flat at USD1.7024
EUR-USD: flat at USD1.3612

GOLD: down at USD1314.70 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD113.32 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK economy expanded as estimated in the first quarter, revised data from the Office for National Statistics showed. Gross domestic product grew 0.8% from the fourth quarter, unrevised from the second estimate released on May 22. At the same time, annual growth was revised down to 3% from 3.1%. Another data from ONS showed that household spending adjusted for inflation gained 0.8%, in line with previous estimate. Compared with the first quarter of 2013, spending advanced 2.2%.
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House prices growth in the UK continued to slow in June, results of a survey by Hometrack showed. House prices rose 0.3% on month in June, a slower rate of increase than the 0.5% rise in May. This marked the slowest growth in prices since January 2014. Housing demand remained unchanged after rising in the last 18 months. Meanwhile, the number of property listing rose 1.9% in June.
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Iraqi government troops launched airstrikes against Islamist-led insurgents in Tikrit, a day after the military claimed to have retaken the northern city's university from the rebels. "Army helicopters bombarded gatherings and bases of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Tikrit as part of a plan to liberate the town from ISIL," a security official told dpa. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that massive reinforcements had been dispatched to join government forces positioned in the city of Samara, just to the south of Tikrit, in preparation for a major counteroffensive against jihadists.
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Fighters with the jihadist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant executed between 160 and 190 men this month in Tikrit after seizing the northern Iraqi city, Human Rights Watch said. Analysis of photographs and satellite imagery indicates the al-Qaeda splinter group conducted mass executions after taking the city 140 kilometres north-west of Baghdad on June 11, the New York-based human rights group said. "The number of victims may well be much higher, but the difficulty of locating bodies and accessing the area has prevented a full investigation," the group said in a statement.
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British Foreign Secretary William Hague arrives in Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan for talks with Kurdish leaders on advances made by Islamist militants in the country. He is to meet with Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani to discuss the insurgent assaults and the situation of refugees forced to flee into Kurdistan because of the fighting, Kurdish sources said.
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EU leaders were gearing up Thursday for a showdown over who should next lead the European Commission, with expectations high that British Prime Minister David Cameron will not be allowed to throw a spanner in the works. The presidency of the commission, the EU's executive, is one of the highest political posts in the bloc. Former Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker has laid claim to the office, as lead candidate of the conservative party that came first in European elections in May. But Cameron has steadfastly opposed Juncker's appointment, arguing that leaders should not be restricted to picking among the lead candidates championed by the European Parliament.
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Signing trade agreements with the EU is Ukraine's sovereign right but will have serious consequences, a senior Russian official says. "The consequences of Ukraine's and Moldova's signature will undoubtedly be serious, and we should take into account how it will spill out to avoid misunderstandings and suspicions," Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin tells the Interfax news agency.
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Pro-Russian separatists and mediators for the Ukrainian government were to hold talks about prolonging a fragile ceasefire in the country's east on Friday, only hours after at least five government soldiers died in fighting. The talks were expected to resume in Donetsk at 3pm local time (1200 GMT), a source in the separatist leadership told the Interfax Ukraine news agency. The one-week ceasefire is due to expire at 10pm (1900 GMT) on Friday. Russian President Putin on Friday reiterated Moscow's position that the ceasefire should be prolonged.
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Two key indicators of the mood about the economy in the eurozone fell this month, EU statisticians said. The Business Climate Indicator decreased 0.14 points to 0.22, statisticians said, with executives gloomier about all the five topics on which they are regularly surveyed. The European Commission's Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI), which surveys consumers as well as business leaders, slipped back to its April level after a spike in May, falling 0.6 points to 102.
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The French economy remained flat in the first quarter as initially estimated, final data from Insee showed. Gross domestic product logged nil growth in the first three months of the year, following a 0.2% rise in the prior quarter. The expenditure-side breakdown of GDP showed that household spending fell 0.5%, while government spending rose 0.4%. Investment declined 0.8% from the prior quarter.
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Meanwhile, the number of registered unemployed in France rose to a new record high in May, data from the labor ministry revealed late Thursday. Registered job seekers rose by 0.7% or 24,800 from April to 3.38 million, the highest on record.
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Japan's unemployment rate declined to 3.5% in May amid signs of economic recovery, the government said. But unstable forms of employment remained one of the nation's most pressing issues, analysts said. The number of temporary and part-time workers jumped by 300,000 from a year earlier to 19.21 million, while that of regular employees grew by only 10,000 to 33.24 million, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.
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US President Barack Obama is seeking approval from Congress for USD500 million in aid to train "moderate" Syrian armed rebels. "These funds would help defend the Syrian people, stabilize areas under opposition control, facilitate the provision of essential services, counter terrorist threats, and promote conditions for a negotiated settlement," Caitlin Hayden, spokesperson for the National Security Council that advises Obama, said Thursday.
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Greece or Costa Rica will be fighting for a place in the World Cup semi-finals while five South American teams will be reduced to two or three after the last 16 which begins on Saturday. The first knock-out stage gets underway in Belo Horizonte where hosts Brazil take on Chile, and four hours later continues in Rio de Janeiro when Colombia meet Uruguay in the day's second South American battle. The winners of these two games go on to meet each other in a quarter-final in Fortaleza, ensuring at least one South American team will be represented in the last four.
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