Johnston Press PLC Share News (JPR)

LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares have opened higher Friday, as a consumer confidence survey has reinforced positive sentiment from strong UK retail sales figures released on Thursday.

British consumer confidence hit its highest level since August 2007 on upbeat general economic and personal finance expectations, a survey showed before the open Friday.

Meanwhile, Aviva PLC said it is to sell US equity manager River Road Asset Management LLC to asset manager Affiliated Managers Group Inc, as it continues to implement its strategy of simplifying its business model.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.4% at 6,611.32
FTSE 250: up 0.2% at 16,231.56
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.6% at 853.58
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Hang Seng: closed up at 22,065.53
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.5% at 14,696.03
DJIA: closed marginally down at 16,264.23
S&P 500: closed down 0.2% at 1,849.04
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.6612
EUR-USD: down at USD1.3715

GOLD: up at USD1,295.55 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD107.80 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Friday's Key Economic Events still to come

09:00 Italy Producer Price Index
09:30 UK Current Account
09:30 UK Gross Domestic Product
09:30 UK Index of Services
09:30 UK Total Business Investment
10:00 EU Consumer and Industrial Confidence, Business Climate, Economic Sentiment
n/a Italy 5-y and 10-y Bond Auction
12:30 US Personal Income and Personal Spending
13:00 Germany Consumer Price Index
14:55 US Reuters/Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index
16:45 US Fed's George Speech
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British consumer confidence hit its highest level since August 2007 on upbeat general economic and personal finance expectations, a closely watched survey showed Friday. The consumer sentiment index came in at -5 in March, up from -7 in February, the market research group GfK said. The score was forecast to rise to -6.
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FRANCE FEB PRODUCER PRICES FALL 1.7% ANNUALLY, CONSENSUS -1.4%
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FRANCE FEB CONSUMER SPENDING DOWN 0.2% ON YEAR, CONSENSUS 0.7%
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The inflation rate in Japan came in at 1.5% on year in February, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said - in line with expectations and up from 1.4% in January. Core inflation came in at 1.3%, matching forecasts and unchanged from the previous month.
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Retail sales in Japan were up 3.6% on year in February, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said - coming in at 10.913 trillion yen. That topped forecasts for an increase of 3.5% following the 4.4% gain in January.
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The unemployment rate in Japan came in at a seasonally adjusted 3.6% in February, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said. That beat forecasts for 3.7%, which would have been unchanged from the January reading.
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Both houses of the US Congress overwhelmingly approved legislation Thursday to provide USD1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine. The Senate bill passed 98-2, while the House bill passed 399-9. They measure now awaits the signature of President Barack Obama, who returns Saturday after visits in Europe and Saudi Arabia. The International Monetary Fund on Thursday offered Ukraine between USD14 billion and USD18 billion dollars in loans over two years to help the country avoid financial collapse after months of unrest that led to the Russian annexation of Crimea. In Ukraine, former premier Yulia Tymoshenko announced her candidacy in presidential elections slated for May 25.
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US President Barack Obama announced a plan Thursday to end the government's bulk collection of telephone communications data, calling for telephone companies to retain the records as they do now. "Having carefully considered the available options, I have decided that the best path forward is that the government should not collect or hold this data in bulk," Obama said in a statement issued by the White House. "Instead, the data should remain at the telephone companies for the length of time it currently does today."
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The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been moved about 1,100 kilometres to the north after a new analysis of its flight path suggested the plane was travelling faster than previously thought, Australian officials said. The international team of aircraft and boats would now comb approximately 319,000 square kilometres of the Indian Ocean located around 1,850 kilometres west of Perth, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said. The shift came as the weather cleared, allowing the search by ships and planes from Australia, the US, China and Japan to continue.
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An Islamist alliance supporting Egypt's ousted president Mohammed Morsi Thursday said that "the mask has fallen" with army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi's declaration that he will seek the presidency. "The mask has fallen from the face of the man who carried out the coup after plotting it with Egypt's enemies," the pro-Morsi National Alliance in Defence of Legitimacy said in a statement.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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JEFFERIES INITIATES KIER GROUP WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 2093 PENCE
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JEFFERIES INITIATES INTERSERVE WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 813 PENCE
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JEFFERIES INITIATES CARILLION WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 518 PENCE
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JEFFERIES INITIATES BALFOUR BEATTY WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 406 PENCE
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JEFFERIES INITIATES SPORTS DIRECT WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 1000 PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Aviva PLC said it is to sell US equity manager River Road Asset Management LLC to asset manager Affiliated Managers Group Inc, as it continues to implement its strategy of simplifying its business model. The FTSE 100 life insurer and asset manager said its Aviva Investors asset management unit remains committed to the US market and has a strong business in Chicago. River Road, based in Louisville, Kentucky was acquired in 2009. At the end of 2013 it had USD11.00 billion in assets under management. It will continue to manage Aviva Investors' US Equity Income Funds.
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Ruspetro PLC said it has signed a further crude oil prepayment facility with Glencore Energy UK Ltd, a subsidiary of Glencore Xstrata PLC, for USD30 million. The Russian oil and gas company said the deal renews and replaces its existing prepayment facility which it entered into with Glencore in August 2013. The company said the facility is for a period of one year and requires RusPetro to deliver a minimum of 15,000 metric tonnes per quarter, or roughly 1,200 barrels of oil per day of crude oil to Glencore.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Exhibitions and conferences organiser ITE Group PLC said it expects "record" profits and a rise in revenues for the first half of its financial year, although it is being hit by the strength of sterling and the crisis in Ukraine. In a trading update, the company said it expects revenues for the six months to March 31 to be about GBP72 million, up from GBP69 million a year earlier, thanks to good trading and "a stronger biennial pattern". It said the revenue growth, combined with a first-time profit contribution from the Chinacoat event that it bought last November, will help it produce "record profits" for the period.
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Hansteen Holdings Raises GBP47.1M Through Placing; Buys Further GBP26M Of Units In Ashtenne Industrial Fund
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QinetiQ Says Global Products Still Being Affected By US Pullout From Afghansitan; Says On Track To Deliver Its Expectations For FY; Says EMEA Services Performing Well
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St Modwen Properties Says Profits, Cashflows In Line With Expectations
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Capital & Counties Establishes JV With Transport For London For Earls Court Development
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COMPANIES - ALL-SHARE AND AIM
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Radiation technology company Kromek Group PLC warned that revenues for its current financial year are expected to come in well below expectations due to delays for a large number of contracts, and therefore it no longer expects to be profitable this year. The supplier of radiation technology to the medical, security and nuclear markets said it had been hit by delayed orders from UK and US government programmes, from the Japanese nuclear detection products market, and delays to large orders in the medical and security markets.
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Sierra Rutile Ltd said its pretax profit fell significantly in its full year 2013 as revenues fell and costs increased despite a jump in production during the year. The titanium feedstock minerals company, with operations in Sierra Leone, said its pretax profit fell 88% to USD10.5 million in 2013 from USD84.4 million the previous year, as revenues fell 31% to USD123.4 million from USD179.1 million in 2012.
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Ark Therapeutics Signs Heads Of Terms On UK Healthcare Sector Acquisition Which Will Be Reverse Takeover; Asks For Shares To be Suspended; Intends Holders To Retain Significant Minority Of New Company
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Kingspan Extends, Re-Prices EUR300M Revolving Credit facility
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Johnston Press FY Pretax Loss GBP286.8M, Vs GBP6.8M Loss Year Before; Underlying FY Pretax Profit GBP13.3M, Vs GBP8.6M Year Before; FY Revenue GBP302.8M, Vs GBP358.7M Year Before, Both Including Exceptional News Intl Payment; Says Digital Revenue Up 19% In FY, Up 25% In H2; Digital Display Ad Revenue Up 30% In FY; Says Ad Revenue Down 6.0% In Jan-Feb 2014; Says EBITDA Up 8.0% In 2014 To End February
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Songbird Estates FY Net Assets GBP2.66B Vs GBP1.77B; Adjusted Net Asset Value GBP2.90 Vs GBP2.10; FY Pretax Profit GBP1.04B Vs GBP201.5M
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Manroy Receives Takeover Offer From Herstal At 85p Per Share Or GBP16.2M Total; Recommends Shareholders Accept Herstal Takeover Offer; Says Herstal Takeover Offer Has Acceptances For 54.1% Of Shares; Sells Its 49% Stake In US Business At Nominal Value As Condition Of Herstal Takeover Offer; To Take Charge Of GBP5.1M In FY Results From Sale Of US Business; FY13 Post Tax Loss Including US Charge GBP6.3M, Vs GBP1.5M; Adjusted Loss GBP0.2M, Vs GBP0.1M; FY13 Revenue GBP8.9M, Up From GBP7.4M In FY12; To Pay No Dividend For FY13
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Judges Scientific 2013 Before Items Pretax Profit GBP7.3M, Up From GBP5.6M; Revenue GBP36.0M, Up From GBP28.0M; Up 4.3% On Like-For-Like Basis; Says Early Weeks Of 2014 Have Been "Sedate" But Order Book Robust; 2013 Total Dividend 20p, Up From 15p
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Friday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

St. Modwen Property
SVG Capital
Trinity Mirror
BlackRock Commodities Income Investment Trust
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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