Johnson Matthey Share News (JMAT)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares have opened higher Wednesday, as fears about emerging market economies has eased ahead of the results of the January US Federal Reserve meeting.

Royal Dutch Shell has announced another asset sale, this time 23% of its Brazilian offshore block for USD1 billion.

Among AIM stocks, Mulberry has issued a profit warning following a poor Christmas and cancellations from Korean wholesalers.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:

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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 53.76 at 6,626.09
FTSE 250: up 179.26 at 15,895.09
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 4.28 at 863.39
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DJIA: closed up 90.68 at 15,928.56
S&P 500: closed up 10.94 at 1,792.50
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.6575
EUR-USD: up at USD1.3663

GOLD: up at USD1,253.20 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD107.53 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

09:00 Italy Business Confidence
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks change
19:00 US Fed Interest Rate Decision
23:50 Japan Foreign bond investment
23:50 Japan Retail Trade
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UK house prices increased at the fastest pace in more than three-and-half years in January, supported by strong growth in employment, record low mortgage rates and rising confidence, data from a survey by the Nationwide Housing Society showed. The house price index climbed 8.8% annually in January, marking the fastest growth since May 2010, when prices rose by 9.8%. Prices are around 4% below their 2007 peak. Economists were looking for an 8.5% gain for January. In December, the index recorded an 8.4% increase.
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Turkey's central bank lifted its key interest rates sharply at an emergency midnight policy meeting to combat the weakness in the lira. The one-week repo rate was increased sharply to 10% from 4.5%. The central bank raised its overnight lending rate to 12% from 7.75% and the overnight borrowing rate to 8% from 3.5%. The Monetary Policy Committee decided to simplify the operational framework. Accordingly, liquidity will be provided primarily from one-week repo rate instead of the marginal funding rate in the forthcoming period.
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New commercial vehicle sales in Europe grew modestly last year and was the third lowest in the series, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) said. Commercial vehicle registrations rose 1% to 1,711,843 units from 1,695,294 units in 2012. Despite the increase, this was the third lowest level since the start of the series in 1997 in absolute figures, the Brussels-based ACEA said.
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There is no panic situation as seen in May when talks of scaling back of bond purchases by Federal Reserve rattled global capital markets, a top International Monetary Fund official said Tuesday. The recent instability stems from problems in a subset of emerging market countries, Jose Vinals, financial counselor and head of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department at the IMF said. Vinals said, "So far this is the combination of idiosyncratic factors." He said emerging markets should take more steps to cushion their economies from external shocks.
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US President Barack Obama Tuesday called for "a year of action" to make progress in the recovering US economy while combatting inequality and expanding opportunity for Americans. In his annual State of the Union message to Congress, Obama promised action against inequality, even if he has to act on his own without Congressional action. He asked Congress to raise the income floor to USD10.10 an hour.
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Ukraine's parliament was Wednesday due to debate an amnesty for protesters, a day after the country's prime minister and cabinet resigned and legislators repealed stringent protest laws to appease anti-government demonstrators. Parliament was expected to agree to free people detained in connection with the protests that have hit the capital and other cities for more than a week, according to Radio Svoboda, the Ukraine service of US-based Radio Liberty. President Viktor Yanukovych has said he wants the amnesty to be conditional on protesters leaving occupied public buildings and removing barricades.
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GERMANY FEB GFK CONSUMER CONFIDENCE RISES TO 8.2, CONSENSUS 7.6: REPORTS
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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DEUTSCHE BANK CUTS DERWENT LONDON TO 'SELL' ('HOLD') - TARGET 2140 PENCE
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UBS RAISES INTU PROPERTIES TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 360 (345) PENCE
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BERENBERG INITIATES HOWDEN JOINERY GROUP WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 390 PENCE
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TRADERS: GOLDMAN CUTS JOHNSON MATTHEY TO 'NEUTRAL' ('BUY')
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TRADERS: LIBERUM STARTS HAMMERSON WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 617 PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced an agreement to sell a 23% stake in the Parque das Conchas project offshore Brazil for USD1 billion. The major oil and gas company said the sale of the interest is to Qatar Petroleum International and is subject to approval by certain agencies in Brazil. Shell will continue to hold a 50% working interest in the site and be the operator, retaining a significant presence in Brazil. Shell currently operates two floating, production, storage and offloading vessels in Brazil's offshore fields.
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Anglo American PLC said it has increased production in its fourth quarter for all of its major metals.
The major mining company said its Kumba Iron Ore Production in South Africa increased by 25% to 11.3 million tonnes in the three months ending 2013, compared from the previous year, mainly due to a strike in the fourth quarter of 2012 which slowed operations.
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Antofagasta Q4 Copper Production Up 4.9% Vs Q3, To 182,900T; Q4 Gold Production Down 6.4% Vs Q3, To 63,300Oz; Expects FY 2014 Copper Production 700,000T, Gold Production 270,000Oz, Molybdenum 7,500T
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Wealth manager Brewin Dolphin Holdings PLC said the funds it manages rose in the first quarter, while total income increased by 6.5% to GBP69.6 million because of strong growth in its core income from discretionary, advisory and execution only services. In a statement, Brewin Dolphin said the total funds it manages or advises on rose to GBP28.9 billion from GBP28.2 billion during the three months to December 29, 2013.
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Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said it had signed a deal for Carphone Warehouse Group PLC to operate over 60 of its Samsung stand-alone stores across Europe, and said there was the potential to further expand the store partnership in the future. The deal comes after Samsung opened three stand-alone stores in Spain run by Carphone Warehouse in 2013. The new stores, which will sell Samsung mobile products including phones, tablets, and laptops, will be rolled out in the next three months across seven European markets: the UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and the Netherlands.
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Britvic Says Remains On Track To Deliver FY EBIT In Line With Previous Guidance Of GBP148-156M; Reiterates FY Revenue Guidance Of GBP275M To GBP285M; Says Q1 Revenue Growth In GB, Ireland, France, International; Says Trading At Q2 Start Ahead Of Last Year
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BTG Says Trading So Far In Line With Expectations
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COMPANIES - ALL-SHARE AND AIM
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Luxury goods provider Mulberry Group PLC issued a profit warning after reporting a fall in retail sales in the last 8 weeks as it was hit by the discounting seen in the UK sector over Christmas, and a challenging Korean wholesale market. The maker of women's bags, clothes and accessories, among other luxury items, said total retail sales fell 3% in the 17 weeks to January 25, even though its international retail sales were up 40% over the period. Total retail sales had been up 3% in the nine weeks to end-November, but then fell 7% in the following 8 weeks.
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Engineering services company Renew Holdings PLC said trading had been strong in the first quarter of its financial year, a situation it expects to continue in the second quarter, as its rail, water and nuclear businesses all perform strongly. In a statement ahead of its annual general meeting, Chairman Roy Harrison said the company's order book at the end of December stood at GBP433 million, up from GBP340 million a year earlier. Its engineering services order book was GBP306 million, up from GBP245 million.
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Pochin's H1 Pretax Profit GBP286K, Up From GBP268K Year Before; Revenue Down To GBP38.4M From GBP43.3M Year Before; Declares No Interim Dividend; Says Deadline For Takeover Offer Extended To Feb. 3
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Bullabulling Gold Q4 Production Forecast At 94.7Mt, Containing 2.6MOz Of Gold; Says Total Gibraltar Resource Now 114Mt At 1.02G/T For 3.8MOz Of Gold
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North River Resources Raises Roughly GBP1.0M Through Share Placing; Imperial Minerals Buys 5.33% Stake In North River Resources For GBP422,300; North River Resources Enters Drill-For-Equity Agreement At Namib Lead-Zinc Project In Namibia
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International Greetings In Line With Expectations After Good Christmas Trading
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Naibu Global Says Results For Current Year To Be In Line With Market Expectations
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Highland Gold FY Production of Gold And Gold Equivalents Increased 8%, To 233,696Oz, In Line With Guidance
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Staffline 2013 Reported Pretax Profit Up 0.5% To GBP8.6M From GBP8.5M In 2012; Revenue Up 13% To GBP416.2M From GBP367.0M Year Before; Total Dividend 10.0p, Up 24% From 8.1p; Sees Strong Start To 2014 Trading
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Havelock Expects FY Trading In Line With Its Expectations
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Frontier Resources Says Soil Gas Survey In Namibia Shows Presence Of Methane, Ethane, Propane And Butane Gases
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Servoca Full-Year Pretax Profit Before Amortisation, Share-Based Payments GBP0.81M Vs GBP0.21M Year Before; Revenue GBP43.1M, Slightly Up From GBP42.5M Year Before
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One Media IP Group Buys Lumi Entertainment Rights Catalogue For USD75K
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Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Finsbury Growth & Income Trust
Britvic
Cineworld Group
Investors in Global Real Estate
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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