Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares prices in London have risen strongly at the open Friday, as markets showed relief that the people of Scotland voted to remain part of the UK. The pound also made strong gains as the results of the vote were announced overnight but has since settled back.

With 31 of the 32 council areas declared, the 'No' campaign had an unassailable lead Friday morning. It had a 55% share of the vote, compared with 45% for the 'Yes' vote. Over 1.9 million voted 'No', but over 1.5 million voted to leave the union.

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond conceded defeat, but said he expected the UK's main political parties to honour their promise to devolve more powers to the Scottish parliament. UK Prime Minister David Cameron responded by saying the main political parties would honour their promises, but he also said a settlement must be fair and balanced across the UK, with further devolution to Wales, England and Northern Ireland too.

Scotland-exposed companies responded to the result early Friday. Royal Bank of Scotland Group said that it is business as usual for its customer and that its contingency plan to move its head office to England was no longer needed. The stock is up 4.1% at the open, the second biggest gainer in the FTSE 100 behind St. James's Place.

Meanwhile, HSBC has raised Perth-based power distributor SSE to Neutral from Underweight, according to traders. The stock is up 2.0%.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.6% at 6,861.81
FTSE 250: up 0.9% at 15,856.94
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.3% at 760.24
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Hang Seng: up 0.7% at 24,346.69
Nikkei 225: closed up 1.6% at 16,321.17
DJIA: closed up 0.6% at 17,265.99
S&P 500: closed up 0.5% at 2,011.36
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GBP-USD: flat at USD1.6443
EUR-USD: down at USD1.2892

GOLD: down at USD1,221.88 per ounce
OIL (Brent): flat at USD97.62 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
(all times British Summer Time)

09:00 EU Current Account
13:30 Canada Consumer Price Index
13:30 Canada Wholesale Sales
15:00 US CB Leading Indicator

Saturday and Sunday G20 Meeting
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The Scottish electorate have voted to continue with more than 300 years of union with the rest of the UK, but Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said he expects the UK's main political parties to honour their promise to devolve more powers to the Scottish parliament. UK Prime Minister David Cameron responded by saying the main political parties would honour their promises, but he also said a settlement must be fair and balanced across the UK, with further devolution to Wales, England and Northern Ireland too. Crucially, he also pledged to end the situation where Scottish Members of Parliament can vote on all laws applying to England, but English MPs don't get a say on laws devolved to Scotland. He said English laws must be set by English MPs. With 31 of the 32 council areas declared, the 'No' campaign had an unassailable lead. It had a 55% share of the vote, compared with 45% for the 'Yes' vote. Over 1.9 million voted 'No', but over 1.5 million voted to leave the union. Salmond conceded defeat, but said the millions who voted for independence must be listened to.
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Germany's producer prices decreased at a stable rate as expected in August, data from Destatis showed. Producer prices fell 0.8% year-over-year in August, the same rate as in July. This was in line with the consensus estimate. On a month-on-month basis, producer prices declined at the stable rate of 0.1% in August, as expected by economists.
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Japan's leading index was revised downwards in July, final data from the Cabinet Office showed. The leading index rose to 105.4 in July, which was revised down from 106.5. In June, the index was at 104.7.
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France agreed Thursday to conduct airstrikes alongside the US against the Islamic State in Iraq, as the US Congress approved plans to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels to go after the terrorist group. President Francois Hollande said France would join the US-led air campaign in Iraq, ruling out any involvement in Syria where the militant group controls large territories.
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Iran must speed up its cooperation with an investigation into alleged nuclear weapons projects, US and EU envoys said Thursday in Vienna, warning that the issue was key to negotiations on a wide-ranging nuclear deal. Diplomats were discussing the sluggishness of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) investigation at an IAEA board meeting just as a next round of talks began in New York.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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GOLDMAN CUTS POLYMETAL PRICE TARGET TO 420 (460) PENCE - 'SELL'
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TRADERS: NOMURA RAISES SABMILLER TO 'NEUTRAL' ('REDUCE')
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TRADERS: HSBC RAISES SSE SCOTTISH & SOUTHERN ENERGY TO 'NEUTRAL' ('UNDERWEIGHT')
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DEUTSCHE BANK RAISES HISCOX TO 'HOLD' ('SELL')
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TRADERS: CANACCORD RAISES CHEMRING GROUP TO 'HOLD' ('SELL')
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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RBS Says It's Business As Usual For Customers; Contingency Plan To Move Head Office To England No Longer Needed
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Lloyds Banking Committed To Significant Presence In Scotland; Focused On Supporting Households, Businesses In Scotland
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Standard Life To Consider Impact Of Further Constitutional Change; Says "Fully Respect" Decision Of Scottish People
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WPP said its Y&R Advertising arm has struck a deal to buy the creative and research agency business of Mongolian conglomerate MCS Holding LLC for an undisclosed amount. The deal is the first made by WPP in Mongolia and makes Y&R the first global advertising network to set up a majority-owned agency office in the country.
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Liberty Global is looking to damp expectations that it could make a bid for ITV amid investor concerns about a potential acquisition of the broadcaster, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. Mike Fries, chief executive of Liberty Global, the cable group headed by Australian mogul John Malone, told a recent investor conference that the investment made in ITV "does not portend anything with that company", the FT said.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Evraz announced it is considering an initial public offering of its North American subsidiary, Evraz North America. Evraz said it released the statement in response to market rumours. It has not filed a registration statement to the US Securities Exchange Commission, but may do in the foreseeable future, the company said. "Evraz remains committed to its North American operations and continuing to grow its business in North America," it said in a statement.
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Domino Printing Sciences said trading in the year to date has been ahead of the year before and said it is confident for its full-year prospects, though it once more cautioned on its prospects for 2015. Sales in the ten months to August 2014 were up 4% year-on-year, the company said, with underlying growth in its core business up 9%, though the core business took a 5% hit from foreign exchange movements.
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Just Eat said its Brazilian business RestauranteWeb has merged with Brazilian online restaurant delivery company iFood.com Agencia de Restaurantes Online. The new company will be called IF-JE Participações Ltda and will be a joint venture between Just Eat and iFood's existing shareholders.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Clean Air Power said it is facing challenging trading conditions at present and said it expects its full year results to fall significantly below market expectations, sending its shares down heavily in opening trade. Shares in Clean Air Power dropped 37% in early trade to 3 pence, making it the biggest faller on the AIM All-Share.
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Surgical Innovations Group warned it expects full-year profit and revenue to be significant below market expectations as the group is hit by a number of issues. The group said a continued fall in original-equipment-manufacturer (OEM) revenue and slower-than-expected revenue from its US dealer network, in combination with the decision made by the group to cut inventories in the customer supply chain, means it expects full-year profit and revenue to fall significant below market forecasts.
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Avation said it has purchased and taken delivery of another ATR 72-600 aircraft from its manufacturer. The aircraft is leased to an unnamed European airline for a period of ten years, Avation said.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Alibaba Group Holding carved out a niche position in the stock market space with its initial public offering. The Chinese e-commerce company on Thursday priced its much-awaited initial public offering at USD68 per American Depositary Share, at the higher end of its range, making it the biggest ever in US history. At the USD68-per-share price, Alibaba would raise about USD21.8 billion from the offering, exceeding that of Visa which raised about USD18 billion from its initial offering in 2008, and more recently, Facebook which raised USD16.4 billion. Alibaba shares will trade under the ticker symbol "BABA" from Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. The USD68 per share IPO price values Alibaba at about USD171 billion, but analysts say that may exceed USD250 billion once it starts trading.
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Oracle Corp said Thursday after the markets closed that its first quarter profit fell slightly from last year, hurt mainly by higher income tax expenses even as revenue increased 3%. The company's quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, also came in below analysts' expectations as did its quarterly revenue. Oracle also said Larry Ellison will move to the position of executive chairman and chief technology officer. Ellison was hitherto the chief executive officer.
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Software giant Microsoft Corp is Thursday laying off 2,100 more employees worldwide as part of the second phase of its larger plan announced in mid-July to cut about 18,000 jobs in a year's time. Microsoft reportedly said the job cuts are spread across multiple business units and countries.
The first phase of the job cuts announced in July itself saw the slashing of about 13,000 positions. Microsoft is still planning to eliminate another 2,900 jobs by July 2015.
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The newest iPhones models went on sale around the world on Friday and fans were enthusiastically forming long lines in front of Apple stores to pick up the smartphones. Many Japanese were queuing up for the new bigger and thinner iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus at Apple stores in Tokyo before the doors opened at 8 am (2300 GMT Thursday). Apple Inc said pre-orders for the latest models have exceeded 4 million worldwide in the first 24 hours.
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Friday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Poundland Group
Vectura Group
SuperGroup
Imagination Technologies Group
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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