Mineral & Fin Share News (MAFL)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Telecom Plus leads the FTSE 250 gainers Tuesday after giving a bullish forecast for its first half, saying it expects results "significantly ahead" of the previous year as it saw a strong performance in its first quarter to the end of June.

The utilities company, which provides services including gas, electricity and broadband, said it had seen customers rise during the quarter to 547,378 from 474,404 in the previous year. It expressed confidence in meeting its target of growing its customer base to around 600,000 by the end of the year.

The company said it remains comfortable with its guidance that profits for the full-year will rise by almost 50% to GBP63 million, and reiterated its commitment to continuing its progressive dividend policy.

"The momentum within the business is continuing, with organic growth in customer numbers during the first quarter comfortably ahead of the levels achieved last year," said Chief Executive Andrew Lindsay in a statement.

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MARKETS: UK stocks are trading lower Tuesday morning, giving up slim early gains as equity investors await some important US company earnings later in the session, as well as the appearance of US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen before Congress at 1500 BST.

Futures trading currently indicates a slightly softer open on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 and the DJIA both pointing down about 0.1%.

FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 6,737.72
FTSE 250: down 0.4% at 15,509.56
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 775.72
GBP-USD: up at 1.7154
EUR-USD: down at 1.3611
GOLD: up at USD1,310.29 an ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD105.73 a barrel
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Other Top UK Corporate News
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Rolls-Royce Holdings said it has won a contract with Airbus which will see its Trent 700 engines power five new A330 aircraft that will be leased by Airbus to Kuwait Airways. The FTSE 100-listed company said the engines will be the first Trents to enter service with the Middle East airline, which has also ordered long-term TotalCare support for the engines, its first long-term services agreement, said Rolls-Royce. The company has also signed a contract with United Airlines to extend its TotalCare service support for the lifetime of RB211-535 engines operated by United Airlines on Boeing 757 aircraft. In a further statement Rolls-Royce said it has completed the first run of its higher-thrust version of the Trent XWB.
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Wm Morrison Supermarkets sold Kiddicare this week to UK-based private equity house Endless LLP for GBP2 million, just a fraction of the GBP70 million it paid for the online baby products business just three years ago. Morrisons said in March that it was looking to sell the baby products retailer, as the struggling supermarket chain reported a swing to a pretax loss in its last financial year. Morrisons announced a raft of new measures aimed at turning the business around, including heavy investments in price cuts and property disposals.
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Premier Inns hotels and Costa coffee chain operator Whitbread said it has appointed Richard Baker as its new chairman, with effect from September 1. Baker will succeed Anthony Habgood, who earlier this year said he would be stepping down after nine years at the company. Baker has been on Whitbread's board as a non-executive director since September 2009. Baker also is currently chairman of Virgin Active Group and DFS Furniture Holdings.
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Bowleven said that it has reached a mutual agreement with FTSE 100-listed Petrofac PLC to terminate its strategic alliance agreement. The AIM-listed company said that the termination satisfies one of the conditions of the LUKOIL and NewAge farm-out transaction announced June 24, 2014. The termination agreement is subject to completion of the farm-out. The oil and gas exploration and development company said at the time that it would reduce its interest in the Etinde permit from 75% to 25%, providing LUKOIL with a 37.5% interest and NewAge an additional 12.5% stake, bringing its holding to 37.5%. Under the terms of the strategic alliance arrangement Bowleven said that it will pay USD9 million to Petrofac upon completion of the farm-out transaction as full and final settlement, officially terminating the Strategic Alliance Agreement.
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Online gaming company Bwin.party Digital Entertainment said revenue in the second quarter was softer than expected as strong sports betting was held back by weak poker and casino revenue, while fellow gaming company GVC Holdings reported strong growth in the quarter. Bwin.party said its revenue performance in the second quarter and the first half of the year as a whole was "mixed", with a solid performance in sports, up year-on-year, but weak trading in both poker and casino, and flat bingo revenue held back by challenging competitive conditions in the UK and Italy.
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Recruiter Michael Page International said its gross profit increased in the first half of the year, supported by strong growth in the UK, US and China but said its profit in the period was hit by the strength of sterling. The group reported a gross profit of GBP263.7 million for the first half of the year year, up 0.7% on a reported basis from GBP261.9 million a year earlier, but up 7.9% at constant exchange rates. However, Michael Page said a strong pound wiped GBP10 million off its gross profit in the second quarter and a total of GBP19 million off its profit for the first half of the year as a whole.
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Dairy Crest Group saw its shares fall after it said most of its key brands performed well in the first quarter, but sales of its margarine brand Clover continued to slump, hit by a difficult spreads and butter market in the UK. The dairy food company said its four key brands - Cathedral City, Clover, Country Life and FRijj - collectively grew by 4% in the quarter ended June 30. However, while Cathedral City, Country Life and FRijj each grew sales by more than 5%, the Clover brand continued to see a fall in sales in a difficult spreads market, it said.
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Building products company Epwin Group priced its initial public offering, as food concessions operator SSP Group and pharmaceutical services company Ergomed were admitted to trading. Epwin priced its initial public offering on AIM at 100 pence per share, giving it a market capitalisation of GBP135 million. SSP Group was admitted to full dealings on the main market of the London Stock Exchange after starting unconditional dealings last week; its IPO was priced at 210 pence per share, giving it a market cap of GBP997 million, whilst Ergomed was admitted to AIM market after raising GBP11 million in its offering at 160 pence per share, giving it a market capitalisation of GBP46.0 million.
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AIM MOVERS
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Amongst the gainers Tuesday, Mineral & Financial Investments shares jumped as it reported a rise net asset value in the quarter to end-June and expressed cautious optimism for the remainder of the year. Shares in Fletcher King are also up; the business increased its final dividend threefold, doubling its total dividend for the year, after reporting a jump in annual profit. Image Scan Holdings shares are higher; the group said that it has signed new contracts worth a total of GBP92,400 for its security products in Asian markets. Shares in Weatherly International are trading higher after the company said 1,507 tonnes of copper metal contained in concentrate was produced in the fourth quarter ended June 30, up from 1,067 tonnes in the previous quarter ended March 31. At the other end of the market, shares in Charlemagne Capital Ltd are down after it said its current level of assets under management is below the level required to ensure sustainable profits, while full-year profit levels will depend on the generation of performance fees during the remainder of the year. URU Metals also trades lower; the company said it has appointed Swedish environmental consultants Pelagia Miljökonsult AB to lead a base line environmental study over the Närke Oil-Uranium project in Sweden.
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Top Economics And General
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UK inflation accelerated more than expected in June on higher clothing and footwear prices, data revealed. Consumer prices rose 1.9% in June from last year, the Office for National Statistics said. A similar rate of increase was last seen in January and this was the fastest since December 2013. Inflation was forecast to rise moderately to 1.6% from 1.5% in May. Month-on-month, consumer prices gained 0.2%, confounding expectations for a 0.1% fall. Prices declined 0.1% in May.
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Like-for-like retail sales in the UK were down 0.8% on year in June, the British Retail Consortium said. That was well shy of forecasts for an increase of 1.0% following the 0.5% annual gain in May. "Consumers continue to benefit from competitive pricing, which may be the cause of softer like-for-like sales in June," BRC director-general Helen Dickinson said. Overall retail spending added an annual 0.6% in June, and it was up 2.6% in the second quarter of 2014.
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Britain's Defence Secretary Philip Hammond is to replace Foreign Secretary William Hague, Downing Street said. Hague unexpectedly resigned late Monday, and said he would not be standing for parliament again in next year's general election.British Foreign Secretary William Hague is resigning and will stand down at the next election, he said in an unexpected announcement late Monday, as part of a Cabinet reshuffle. "By the time of the general election next year, I will have served 26 years in the House of Commons and it will be 20 years since I first joined the Cabinet," said Hague in a statement.
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The Bank of Japan maintained its monetary stimulus unchanged as widely expected and reaffirmed its aim to achieve the 2% inflation in a stable manner. But the growth outlook for the current fiscal year was downgraded as exports and household spending remain weak. At the Monetary Policy Meeting held on Tuesday, members unanimously decided to continue to increase the monetary base at an annual pace of about JPY60-JPY70 trillion.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns his government will resume and intensify the Gaza offensive if Hamas and other armed groups in the Strip do not stop firing rockets and reject an Egyptian-proposed truce. "If Hamas rejects the proposals and the rocket fire does not cease we are prepared to continue and intensify the attacks," he told a news conference with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Netanyahu is asking the international community to support the Egyptian initiative.
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Iran is offering to hold off from expanding its uranium-enrichment programme for about seven years in negotiations with six world powers, Tehran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said in remarks published by The New York Times. Zarif outlined the offer as negotiators were struggling in Vienna to reach a deal by a Sunday deadline that would curb Iran's nuclear programme, end sanctions targeting the country and ultimately repair its relations with the world. The size of Iran's uranium-enrichment programme is one of the key elements of the deal, on which negotiators have made little headway, diplomats have said.
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Iraqi forces launched an attack to retake the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, the second offensive since Sunni extremists took over several cities across the country last month. Army officials told dpa that military forces began their assault on the city from the northern and southern entrances of the city, and are trying to move towards the provincial council in the centre of Tikrit. The forces are backed by tanks, helicopters and artillery as they attempt to seize control of the city from milita led by fighters of the terrorist organisation Islamic State. The army have been trying to take control of Tikrit, 140 kilometres north-west of Baghdad, for the past two weeks.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times British Summer Time)
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13:30 US Export and Import Price indices
13:30 US NY Empire State Manufacturing Index
13:30 US Retail Sales
13:55 US Redbook index
15:00 US Fed's Yellen testifies
15:00 US Business Inventories
16:30 US 4-Week Bill Auction
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Wednesday's Key UK Corporate Events
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Fenner Interim Management Statement
Oxford Instruments Interim Management Statement
ICAP Interim Management Statement
BTG Interim Management Statement
Evraz Q2 Operational Results
Rio Tinto Q2 Production Report
Fresnillo Q2 Production Report
Severn Trent Interim Management Statement
London Stock Exchange Group Interim Management Statement
British Land Co Interim Management Statement
Workspace Group Interim Management Statement
Hochschild Mining Q2 Production Report
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Wednesday's Key Economic Events (all times British Summer Time)
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03:00 China Gross Domestic Product
03:00 China Industrial Production
03:00 China Retail Sales
03:00 China Urban investment
06:00 Japan BoJ Monthly Economic Survey
09:30 UK Claimant Count
09:30 UK Average Earnings
09:30 UK ILO Unemployment Rate
10:00 EU Trade Balance
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
13:30 US Producer Price Index
14:00 US Total Net TIC Flows
14:15 US Industrial Production
14:15 US Capacity Utilization
15:00 US Fed's Yellen testifies
15:00 US NAHB Housing Market Index
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks change
19:00 US Fed's Beige Book
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