Marks & Spencer Share News (MKS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Share prices were firm in London early Tuesday, despite lingering fears of a Brexit-style upset in the US presidential election on Tuesday.

Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump campaigned into the early hours of Tuesday in a last pitch to US voters as the final minutes of the presidential campaign ticked away. The focus of the final rallies was on the swing states such as North Carolina and Pennsylvania which hold the keys to the presidency. The result should be know early Wednesday morning London time.

In London Tuesday, Primark-owner AB Foods, M&S and Next were among the blue-chip leaders, as the retailers benefited from the report of a spike in UK retail sales in October and as AB Foods and M&S both released results. AB Foods was the clear leader, though, up 7.1%.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.2% at 6,818.22
FTSE 250: up 0.3% at 17,502.20
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 803.45
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Hang Seng: closed up 0.5% at 22,909.47
Nikkei 225: closed flat at 17,171.38
DJIA: closed up 2.1% at 18,259.60
S&P 500: closed up 2.2% at 2,131.52
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GBP: firm at USD1.2430 (USD1.2407)
EUR: firm at USD1.1061 (USD1.1038)

GOLD: firm at USD1,284.92 per ounce (USD1,281.50)
OIL (Brent): up at USD46.26 a barrel (USD45.55)

(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Tuesday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in GMT)

US presidential election

0930 UK industrial and manufacturing production
1000 UK inflation report hearings
1100 US NFIB business optimism index
1145 US Fed's Evans speech
1200 Ireland consumer confidence
1315 Canada building permits and housing starts
1355 US Redbook index
1500 US JOLTS job openings
1500 UK NIESR GDP estimate
1620 US Fed's Evans speech
2130 US API weekly crude oil stocks
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The outlook for Britain's public finances has worsened by GBP25 billion since the March Budget, think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned. As Philip Hammond prepares for his first Autumn Statement as Chancellor of the Exchequer, the IFS predicts that lower growth forecasts will push up government borrowing and debt, while opposition parties expressed alarm about the Treasury's "Brexit black hole". The IFS estimates that by 2019-20 lower growth could see tax revenues GBP31 billion lower than forecast in this year's Budget, if financial policy remains the same. The IFS states this could be offset by GBP6 billion lower spending if the UK halts any payments to the EU budget.
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Permanent job placements in the UK grew at the fastest pace in eight months in October, the Report on Jobs compiled by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and IHS Markit showed. The number of people placed in permanent jobs rose for the third straight month in October. Moreover, the rate of expansion was the quickest since April. Similarly, the temporary or contract staff placements climbed further in October, with the rate of growth accelerating to a five-month high.
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Like-for-like sales in the UK spiked 1.7% on year in October, the British Retail Consortium said - thanks to tumbling supermarket prices. That topped expectations for a gain of 0.6% following the 0.4% increase in September. Online purchases jumped an annual 11%, while in-store purchases slipped 1.5%. Overall retail sales were up 2.4% on year.
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Winter is set to sweep in early on Tuesday for the UK with widespread snowfall up to 15cm deep threatening to bring travel disruption. Temperatures fell as far as minus 5C in central England overnight on Monday bringing frost to most parts before the arrival of sleet and snow from the west later. Forecasters have issued a weather warning covering much of Scotland and northern England to come into effect from midday, with inclement conditions expected to continue until rush hour on Wednesday morning as a band of wintry weather moves slowly eastwards.
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China's exports declined by more than expected in October as seen in previous months, leaving the economy to rely on domestic demand and vulnerable property investment to attain a moderate growth. Exports decreased 7.3% in October from the a year ago, data from the General Administration of Customs revealed Tuesday. Shipments were forecast to drop 6% after a 10% fall in September. Imports fell 1.4% annually, bigger than the expected decrease of 1%, but smaller than the 1.9% drop registered in September. Consequently, the trade surplus rose to USD49.1 billion in October from USD41.99 billion in September. But the surplus was below the expected level of USD51.7 billion. In yuan terms, exports decreased 3.2%, while imports rose 3.2% in October.
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The US says it is "disappointed" by recent developments related to the Hong Kong Legislative Council. US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Hong Kong's Legislative Council and independent judiciary play a crucial role in "protecting the special administrative region's high degree of autonomy under the basic law and the one-country-two-systems framework that have been in place since 1997."
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South Korean President Park Geun Hye said she would withdraw her nominee for prime minister, a move seen as an attempt to mollify opposition and public anger over a corruption scandal. At a meeting with National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye Kyun, Park said parliament should recommend its own candidate.
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Germany's industrial production declined at a faster-than-expected pace in September, after rebounding in the previous month, data from Destatis showed. Industrial production fell a seasonally and working-day-adjusted 1.8% month-over-month in September, reversing a 3.0% climb in August, which was revised up from a 2.5% rise reported earlier.
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German exports and imports declined in September after recovering a month ago, Destatis reported. Exports fell by less-than-expected 0.7% in September from August, when it grew 3.4%. Shipments were expected to drop 0.8%. Likewise, imports slid 0.5% following a 1.9% rise in August. Economists had forecast a 0.2% fall. As a result, the trade surplus dropped slightly to a seasonally adjusted EUR21.3 billion compared to a EUR21.6 billion in August.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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CITIGROUP RAISES HSBC TO 'BUY' (NEUTRAL) - PRICE TARGET 665 (620) PENCE
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N+1 Lifts EMIS Group To Buy From Hold, Target 936p From 900p
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Royal Bank of Scotland Group said it is setting aside GBP400 million for a complaints process and automatic fee refunds, following claims that it squeezed small businesses for cash in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. RBS said that, with the agreement of UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority, a new complaints process, overseen by an independent third party, namely William Blackburne, a retired High Court judge, will be available to businesses to complain about their treatment or challenge the bank's judgement on a previous complaint. There will be an automatic refund of complex fees paid by RBS business customers of RBS's Global Restructuring Group in the period between 2008 and 2013.
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British retailer Marks & Spencer Group said it will withdraw from loss-making international operations and will seek to improve productivity in its UK store estate as it continues to try to return to health. The new restructuring aims for the clothing, homewares and food seller came as it reported pretax profit slumped in the first half due to the costs of the actions it is taking, though revenue edged higher. M&S said it will focus its international business on a franchise model in the future and will exit loss-making owned businesses in ten markets. In addition, M&S said, over the next five years, it will reallocate space in its UK stores, cutting its Clothing & Home outlets by around a quarter at a cost of GBP50.0 million a year for the first three years of the plan. In parallel, M&S will continue to roll out its strong Simply Food grocery stores and said the total number of stores it operates will increase under the plans.
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Associated British Foods reported a strong rise in profit in its recent financial year, but warned again that the weakness of the pound against the dollar will cut the UK margins for its Primark discount fashion retail business in the year just started. The conglomerate - which in addition to Primark owns British Sugar and agricultural and consumer food ingredients businesses - said it made a pretax profit of GBP1.04 billion in the 53 weeks to September 17, up 47% from the GBP707.0 million it made in the comparable period a year before. Profit was boosted by the growing Primark store estate and by cost-cutting made in the Sugar and Ingredients businesses.
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Imperial Brands reported a fall in pretax profit on one-off costs in its financial year to the end of September, though net revenue for the tobacco group was lifted by increased market share in the US. The group, which has Davidoff and Winston cigarettes in its portfolio, said it made a pretax profit of GBP907.0 million in the year to the end of September, down from GBP1.75 billion a year prior, due to it booking a net finance cost of GBP1.35 billion, compared to GBP261.0 million the year earlier. Adjusted operating profit, in constant currencies and stripping out any one-off items, was GBP3.54 billion, up 16% from GBP3.05 billion the year earlier.
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Direct Line Insurance Group said it has seen continued growth in its operations in the first nine months of the year, particularly in motor insurance. Direct Line said that over the nine months to September 30 its gross written premiums for ongoing operations were 4.2% higher year on year, with its Motor own-brands premiums up 9.7%. Direct Line also said its Motor and Home own-brand in-force policies were up 4.3% over the nine month period, showing "strong customer retention".
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Grocer Tesco could be facing a multi-million pound fine from City regulators following the attack on its banking arm which resulted in money being taken from around 20,000 accounts, the Daily Telegraph reported. Tesco Bank confirmed on Monday that some its customer accounts were accessed fraudulently over the weekend and it has put a temporary stop on online transactions from current accounts. Tesco Bank Chief Executive Benny Higgins said some of its customer accounts were "subject to online criminal activity, in some cases resulting in money being withdrawn fraudulently".
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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BBA Aviation said trading for 2016 remains in line with its expectations, as it said it has agreed to buy the avionics business of US conglomerate General Electric. BBA said revenue in the ten months to the end of October rose 27% year-on-year, boosted by the acquisition of US rival Landmark and by good organic growth in its Signature division. BBA also said its Ontic legacy support unit has agreed to acquire a portfolio of legacy avionics assets from GE for USD61.5 million in cash. The assets include parts servicing in the military and commercial aviation markets, including places on the Boeing 737 and BAE Hawk aircraft programmes, BBA said.
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PaySafe Group said it remains confident of delivering revenue and earnings over the full year that are in line with the higher guidance levels issued at the midway point of 2016. The payment services company had in August increased 2016 revenue guidance to USD970.0 million to USD990.0 million from the previous target of USD960.0 million, and the company reiterated its updated target for 2016 on Tuesday.
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Buy-to-let lender Aldermore Group said Non-Executive Chairman Glyn Jones will step down from his role early next year. Jones is stepping down, Aldermore said, following his appointment as the chairman of Old Mutual Wealth, the wealth management arm of Anglo-South African financial services group Old Mutual.
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MPs have accused Sports Direct International of placing a recording device to eavesdrop on a private meeting, Sky News reported Monday. This followed an unannounced visit from six members of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee to Sports Direct's Shirebrook warehouse in Derbyshire for an inspection Monday afternoon. The MPs were following up on their inquiry into working practices at the company.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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French oil giant Total plans to sign a USD6 billion deal with Iran to develop an offshore gas field, thus to become the first Western energy company to invest after the international sanctions were lifted early this year. Although, the sanctions against Iran's energy industry were lifted in January, the gulf country has not been able to lure any western energy companies to make a substantial investment in the country. The deal with Total will help Tehran to expand its oil and natural gas reserves. Iran has the world's second-largest gas reserves, and fourth-largest oil reserves, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
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Credit Agricole Group reported its third-quarter net income group share was EUR1.39 billion, compared to EUR1.75 billion in the third quarter of 2015. Underlying net income group share was EUR1.84 billion, an increase of 4.1% compared with the third quarter of 2015.Credit Agricole reported revenue of EUR7.10 billion. Excluding specific items, underlying revenue was EUR7.78 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3.2%.
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Mail and logistics group Deutsche Post DHL Group reported its consolidated net profit for the third quarter surged to EUR618 million from the previous year's EUR49 million. However, quarterly revenue decreased 3.9% to EUR13.86 billion from EUR14.42 billion in the prior-year period. Excluding negative currency effects and lost NHS revenue, revenue growth was 1.5%.
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ArcelorMittal, an integrated steel and mining company, reported its third-quarter net income attributable to equity holders was USD680 million, compared to last year's net loss of USD711 million. EBITDA, a key earnings metric, was USD1.90 billion in the latest quarter, higher than USD1.35 billion in the prior year. Net sales declined to USD14.52 billion from USD15.59 billion last year. Steel shipments were 20.3 million tonnes in the third quarter, down from 21.1Mt last year.
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Rupert Murdoch's News Corp business made a net loss of USD15 million in the July-to-September quarter, according to a report published by the company in New York. In the same period in 2015, News Corp, which publishes The Wall Street Journal and The Times, had registered an income of USD175 million. In a statement accompanying Monday's report, News Corp Chief Executive Robert Thomson cited "obvious challenges" for the company in print advertising and the weakness of the pound. Revenue dropped by nearly 2% to USD1.97 billion.
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South Korean prosecutors investigating a confidante of President Park Geun Gye for corruption searched the offices of electronics giant Samsung on Tuesday in connection with the affair, local media reported. The world's largest manufacturer of smartphones, televisions and memory chips is suspected of having secretly funded the sports activites of the daughter of Park's long-time friend Choi Soon Sil. Park is facing a growing scandal over Choi's alleged influence on state affairs despite her having no official position in the government, with tens of thousands of protesters in Seoul at the weekend demanding the president's resignation.
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Tuesday's Shareholder Meetings

Avingtrans
Global Petroleum
Ortac Resources
Craneware
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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