Legal & General Share News (LGEN)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in London have opened higher Tuesday, ahead of UK inflation data due at 0930 BST, despite Chinese stocks turning negative once again, with the Shanghai Composite index down 3.5%.

Experian shares lead the FTSE 100, up 1.4%, after the stock was upgraded to Buy from Hold by analysts at HSBC.

Kingfisher is the worst blue-chip performer in early deals, down 2.1%. The DIY retailer reported a drop in profit in the first half of its financial year, which it said was hit by movements in currency exchange rates, but said that the business is on track for its turnaround.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.1% at 6,092.46
FTSE 250: up 0.1% at 16,946.00
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 733.25
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Hang Seng: down 0.3% at 21,494.95
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.3% at 18,026.48
DJIA: closed down 0.4% at 16,370.96
S&P 500: closed down 0.4% at 1,953.03
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GBP: down at USD1.5410
EUR: down at USD1.1292

GOLD: down at USD1,108.00 per ounce
OIL (Brent): flat at USD47.36 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Tuesday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in BST)

09:30 UK Consumer, Retail and Producer Price indices
09:30 UK DCLG House Price Index
10:00 Germany ZEW Survey
10:00 EU Employment Change
10:00 EU Trade Balance
10:00 EU ZEW Survey
13:30 US Retail Sales
13:30 US NY Empire State Manufacturing Index
14:15 US Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
14:30 UK Conference Board Leading Economic Index
15:00 US Business Inventories
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A majority of EU interior ministers agreed in principle to redistribute another 120,000 asylum seekers across their bloc, but failed to secure unanimity amid deep disagreements over how best to address Europe's migration crisis. "We did not have the agreement we wanted. A majority of the member states are ready to move forward, but not all," EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said. The ministers did manage to give final approval to a plan to relocate an initial 40,000 asylum seekers arriving in Greece and Italy to other EU states, but redistributing the 120,000 asylum seekers left them at odds.
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The Bank of Japan kept its massive stimulus unchanged as expected by economists. In a statement, the BoJ announced that the policy board headed by Governor Haruhiko Kuroda decided by an 8-1 majority vote to maintain its target of raising the monetary base at an annual pace of about JPY80 trillion. The bank also revealed that private consumption has been resilient and housing investment has been picking up against the background of steady improvement in the employment and income situation.
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In his last act as Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott lashed out at "poll-driven politics" and "sour, bitter, character assassination" media commentary that he said was not good for the country. Abbott criticized a "febrile media culture that rewards treachery," and called on the media not to print unsourced claims from politicians. He pledged to ease the transition for incoming prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, his longtime rival who ousted him as leader of the Liberal Party in a vote late Monday night. "This is a tough game. But when you join the game, you accept the rules," Abbott said.
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Brazil's government faces a federal budget deficit of BRL26 billion (USD6.7 billion), government officials said, in the midst of the deepest economic crisis in the country in years. The deficit, announced Monday by Finance Minister Joaquim Levy and Planning Minister Nelson Barbosa, will force a postponement of pay increases for civil servants from January to August and the delay of some other planned expenditures. It comes after the latest downgrading of Brazil's bonds to junk by Standard & Poor's.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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Liberum Upgrades BP To Buy From Hold, Cuts Price Target To 405p From 435p
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Liberum Upgrades BG Group To Buy From Hold, Lifts Price Target To 1,165p From 886p
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HSBC RAISES EXPERIAN TO 'BUY' ('HOLD') - TARGET 1290 (1150) PENCE
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UBS INITIATES LEGAL & GENERAL WITH 'SELL' - TARGET 207 PENCE
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TRADERS: BARCLAYS INITIATES ALDERMORE WITH 'EQUAL WEIGHT' - TARGET 310P
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TRADERS: BARCLAYS CUTS CLOSE BROTHERS TO 'EQUAL WEIGHT' ('OVERWEIGHT')
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Kingfisher reported a drop in profit in the first half of its financial year, which it said was hit by movements in currency exchange rates, but said that the business is on track in its turnaround programme. The DIY retailer reported a 1.8% drop in pretax profit in the 26 weeks ended August 1 to GBP386 million from GBP393 million in the same period the year before, as sales fell 4.8% to GBP5.49 billion from GBP5.77 billion. Kingfisher said that sales and profit were hit by adverse foreign exchange movements on the translation of non-sterling profits, but that it is progressing with its plan to turn the business around. The company will pay an interim dividend of 3.18 pence, up 1% on the 3.15p it paid the prior year.
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London Stock Exchange Group said it has sold its market data vendor and retail trading provider Proquote to Australia-listed financial technology company IRESS for an undisclosed amount. The exchange operator said it had identified Proquote as a non-core operation going forward for its information services arm. The acquisition includes the Proquote connectivity hub business and LSEHub, a FIX order routing business. LSE expects the deal to complete in the fourth quarter of 2015.
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British Land said it and partner Oxford Properties have signed a deal to let two further floors at the Leadenhall Building, known as The Cheesegrater, in the City of London. The property group said liquefied petroleum gas trader Petredec and insurance and reinsurance company Fidelis Insurance have agreed to take the floors.
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Anglo-South African life insurer and investment manager Old Mutual said Chief Operating Officer Paul Hanratty is to leave the company. Old Mutual said Hanratty will leave the company in March 2016, but will then remain available to the company for a further 12 months.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Ocado Group reported growth in sales in the third quarter of its financial year as its average orders per week increased, and it said that it expects to continue growing slightly ahead of the UK online grocery market. The purely online grocery business said that its group sales in the 12 weeks ended August 9 grew 17% to GBP272.0 million from GBP231.9 million in the same period the year before, as retail sales rose 15% to GBP252.0 million from GBP218.5 million. Average orders per week increased by 17% to 190,000 from 163,000, although average order size slipped 1.1% to GBP110.46 from GBP111.64.
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Nostrum Oil and Gas said its takeover offer for Tethys Petroleum has "not yet been accepted" by the company despite extensive talks between the pair. Nostrum said it is confident of reaching a deal in the near future, with the hope of completing one before the end of 2015, as it reiterated its latest offer despite the continued "erosion" of Tethys' value.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Hastings Insurance confirmed it will float on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange in October to raise GBP180.0 million from the sale of new and existing shares. The Times newspaper earlier had said the IPO could value the business at up to GBP1.5 billion. Hastings - which provides cover for car, bikes, vans and homes and has 1.9 million customers - is half owned by US investment bank Goldman Sachs, which will indirectly remain the company's largest shareholder following the IPO. Credit Suisse, Barclays Bank and HSBC Bank will join in Goldman as bookrunners for the deal.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Apple said initial sales of its newly introduced iPhone 6s are likely to beat a record set just last year. Worldwide pre-orders for the new smartphone were "very strong" and "on pace to beat last year's 10 million unit first weekend record" set by the then-new iPhone 6, Apple said in a statement. Apple said the online demand exceeded its own forecasts.
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Deutsche Bank is reportedly mulling the elimination of about 8,000 jobs, apart from selling Deutsche Postbank, resulting in around 25% reduction of the German lender's total workforce. The cuts are likely to affect administrative and technology positions. A final decision is expected to be made in October. Deutsche Bank may close most or all of its investment bank operations in Russia. The company had 98,647 employees at the end of June.
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Swiss lender Credit Suisse Group will pay more than USD80 million to settle state and federal authorities' allegations that it didn't fully disclose to its clients how it operated its dark pool, Bloomberg reported citing a person familiar with the matter. The Swiss bank will pay more than USD50 million in fines and disgorgement in what would be a record dark-pool settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as around USD30 million to the New York Attorney General, the report said.
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General Electric is bidding for two of the businesses that Halliburton is selling to win regulatory approval of its USD35 billion takeover of rival Baker Hughes, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter. GE reportedly made offers in recent weeks for pieces of Halliburton's drill bits and drilling-services businesses.
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Tuesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

NCC Group
Vietnam Holdings
Ebiquity
Enteq Upstream
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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