Last checked at 
(Correcting the name of the Australian company acquired by Ladbrokes last year.)
LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares have opened higher Wednesday after two days of losses, following a firm close on Wall Street Tuesday.
Among corporate newsmakers at the open, Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC said it has won a USD100 million contract from the US Department of Defense.
UK bookmaker Ladbrokes PLC is set to acquire Australian online betting company Betstar, in a deal worth between AUD20 million and AUD25 million, according to The Telegraph, while online gaming group Bwin.party Digital Entertainment PLC announced the appointment of Philip Yea as its new chairman, while saying revenues in the first quarter were up on the previous quarter but down when compared with a year earlier.
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 6,619.00
FTSE 250: up 0.6% at 16,114.99
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 843.37
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Hang Seng: up 0.9% at 22,792.77
Nikkei 225: closed down 2.1% at 14,299.69
DJIA: closed up 0.1% at 16,256.14
S&P 500: closed up 0.4% at 1,851.96
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GBP-USD: down at USD1.6735
EUR-USD: down at USD1.3793
GOLD: flat at USD1,309.75 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD107.24 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)
09:30 UK Trade Balance
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
15:00 US Wholesale Inventories
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks change
18:00 US 10-Year Note Auction
19:00 US FOMC Minutes
20:30 US Fed's Evans Speech
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Shop prices in the UK tumbled 1.7% on year in March, the British Retail Consortium said - posting the sharpest decline in seven years. The headline figure was shy of forecasts for a contraction of 1.5% following the 1.4% fall in February. Among the individual components, clothing prices were a key drag - plummeting 12.8%. Electrical goods prices also fell 4.4%.
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Ukrainian security forces on Tuesday drove pro-Russian demonstrators from a government building in the eastern city of Kharkiv, as NATO and the US warned Russia that an intervention in Ukraine's east would be an "historic mistake." No shots were fired in the operation to take back the Kharviv region administration building, officials said. Around 70 people were arrested and the city centre, where demonstrators had gathered, was cordoned off. However, pro-Russian activists continued to hold local government buildings in Luhansk and Donetsk.
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An Australian ship picked up again signals heard at the weekend that could come from downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, officials said. The Ocean Shield re-acquired the signal late Tuesday for five minutes and 32 seconds and again for about seven minutes, search leader Angus Houston said. Recapturing a pulse first detected on Saturday has raised hopes of finding the Boeing 777 that went missing a month ago one hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.
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Polls opened Wednesday in Indonesia's parliamentary elections amid expectations of an opposition victory. Twelve national political parties and three local parties in Aceh province are contesting the elections, the fourth since Indonesia embraced democracy following the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998. Recent surveys suggested the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), led by former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, would win the most votes - at around 25%.
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A potential drought caused by rainfall at only half its normal level might further disrupt Syria's food supplies, the UN World Food Programme said Tuesday. While the World Food Programme successfully delivered food aid to a record 4 million Syrians in March, the agency warned in a report that the lack of rain since September will have a dramatic effect on Syria's already strained agriculture.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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BERNSTEIN CUTS BT GROUP TO MARKET-PERFORM (OUTPERFORM) - TARGET 385 P
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UBS CUTS ANTOFAGASTA TO 'SELL' ('NEUTRAL') - PRICE TARGET: 710 (785) PENCE
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UBS RAISES KINGFISHER TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - PRICE TARGET: 470 (440) PENCE
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DEUTSCHE BANK RAISES AFRICAN BARRICK GOLD TO 'BUY' ('HOLD') - TARGET 310 PENCE
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TRADERS: NUMIS RAISES SPIRENT TO 'BUY' ('ADD')
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TRADERS: UBS CUTS INVESTEC TO 'NEUTRAL' ('BUY')
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TRADERS: HSBC RAISES IMI TO 'OVERWEIGHT'
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC said it has won a USD100 million contract from the US Department of Defense to provide continued support for the F405 engines that power the US Navy's T-45 training aircraft. In a statement, the company said the deal is a follow-on, one year contract. The company has been supporting the engines for the past 10 years, it said.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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UK bookmaker Ladbrokes PLC is set to acquire Australian online betting company Betstar, in a deal worth between AUD20 million and AUD25 million, according to The Telegraph late Tuesday. The deal would be its second acquisition in Australia, having bought the operator of Australian gambling website Bookmaker.com.au last September for an initial AUD22.5 million.
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Bwin.party Digital Entertainment PLC announced the appointment of Philip Yea as its new chairman, while saying revenues in the first quarter were up on the previous quarter but down when compared with a year earlier. The Gibraltar-based online gaming company said the quarter to March 31 had been hit by a number of factors, including its shift in focus from 'volume to value'. Bwin.party said that average daily net revenue was up 4% in the first quarter, versus the previous quarter, but was down 9% versus the prior year, hit by the shift in strategy, as well as internet-service-provider blocking in Greece, migration losses, and a challenging poker market in Europe.
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Russian steel maker Evraz PLC reported a wider net loss for 2013, as cost cutting failed to offset a drop in revenues caused by a drop in steel prices. The company, which has been selling assets in an effort to streamline its portfolio to focus on more profitable assets, was hit hard by the drop in steel prices last year. The company reported a net loss of USD522 million for the year, compared with a loss of USD398 million in 2012, as revenue fell to USD14.41 billion, from USD14.73 billion. Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation dropped 10% to USD1.82 billion.
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Engineering and consulting firm WS Atkins PLC said it traded well through the fourth quarter with strong cash flow generation and expects to report results for the full year to end March to be in line with expectations. Epsom-based WS Atkins said its UK business performed well during the year. Revenue is expected to be broadly flat, despite the impact of selling its UK highways services businesses during the period. February 2013 the firm agreed to sell the business to Skanska UK in a deal worth GBP18 million.
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Centamin PLC saw total gold production from its Sukari Gold Mine in Egypt declined in the first quarter of 2014 from the previous quarter, hit by a temporary reduction in underground average grade. However, the FTSE 250 miner maintained its production guidance for 2014 at 420,000 ounces of gold. Centamin reported total gold production for the quarter to end-March of 74,241 ounces, down 14% compared to the previous year and down 19% from the fourth quarter of 2013.
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COMPANIES - ALL-SHARE AND AIM
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Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd said it had priced a USD250 million debt offering. In a statement, the company said the privately placed debt securities were made up of three-year unsecured senior notes carrying a coupon of 13% a year and freely tradeable and detachable warrants relating to 40 million of its shares.
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Tangiers Petroleum Names Michael Evans As Non-Exec Chairman, Stephen Staley As Non-Exec Director; To Resume Trading On AIM Wednesday Following Director Appointments
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Fairpoint Reaches Deal To Acquire Simpson Millar Legal Services Business In Deal Worth Initial GBP9M
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MDM Engineering Group Ltd said shareholders representing 64.37% of its shares have now agreed to vote in favour of the recommended takeover offer from Foster Wheeler AG, moving the deal a step closer to completion. Last month, MDM Engineering agreed a GBP65 million, or 170 pence a share, takeover offer from the Swiss company, which itself is being acquired by British engineering company AMEC PLC. At that time shareholders representing 42.4% of MDM's share capital had agreed to vote in favour of the deal.
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Brammer To Raise About GBP53.7M In Placing
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UK Mail Group Says Q4 & FY Performance To Meet Expectations; Expects FY Reported Revenues To Rise Around 7%; Expects Q4 Underlying Revenues To Rise 4%
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Science In Sport Raises GBP2.3M In 5.1M Oversubscribed Share Placing At 45 Pence Per Share; Placing Was With New, Existing Institutional Shareholders
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Carr's Milling Acquires Chirton Engineering For GBP2.8M
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Prezzo FY Pretax Profit GBP18.4M Vs GBP17.3M; Revenue GBP166.5M Vs GBP144.5M; Proposes 13% Increase Final Dividend To 0.310P Per Share
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McBride Completes Refinancing With New EUR205M Banking Facility
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COMPANIES - OTHER
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Australian retailer David Jones has agreed to a takeover by South Africa's Woolworths that values the company at AUD2.1 billion. Under the deal announced Wednesday, David Jones recommended shareholders accept AUD4 for every share they own - a 25% premium above the closing price Tuesday.
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Alcoa Inc, the largest US aluminum producer, said Tuesday after the markets closed that it swung to a first quarter loss, hurt by lower sales and charges tied mainly to capacity reductions. However, the company's quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, came in above analysts' expectations, but its quarterly sales fell short of analysts' forecast.
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Toyota Motor Corp is recalling about 6.39 million vehicles worldwide over a possible defect of its steering, spiral cable and others components, the carmaker said. Toyota said it was announcing five recalls involving 27 models. "Toyota is not aware of any accidents, injuries or fatalities caused by these conditions," the company said in a statement.
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Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs
Athelney Trust
Law Debenture Corp
Perform Group
Admiral Group
JPMorgan Claverhouse Investment Trust
Dexion Trading
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
