Marks & Spencer Share News (MKS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Grim scenes of terrorism greeted market participants once again early Friday, after a truck ploughed through a revellers celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France.

The attack took attention away from positive economic figures from China and the afterglow of the formation of a new UK government, leaving share prices lower.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.4% at 6,629.22
FTSE 250: down 0.7% at 16,677.10
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.1% at 722.62
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Hang Seng: up 0.2% at 21,611.26
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.7% at 16,497.85
DJIA: closed up 0.7% at 18,506.41
S&P 500: closed up 0.5% at 2,163.75
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GBP: up at USD1.3387 (USD1.3343)
EUR: up at USD1.1133 (USD1.1110)

GOLD: up at USD1,333.22 per ounce (USD1,328.90)
OIL (Brent): down at USD46.86 a barrel (USD47.19)

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

0900 Italy trade balance
1000 EU trade balance
1000 EU consumer price index
1300 UK BOE Governor Carney speech
1330 US current account
1330 US NY Empire State manufacturing index
1330 US retail sales
1330 US consumer price index
1330 Canada manufacturing shipments
1415 US industrial production and capacity utilization
1430 UK Conference Board leading economic index
1500 US Reuters/Michigan consumer sentiment index preliminary
1500 US business inventories
1800 US Baker Hughes US oil rig count
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At least 84 people were killed when a truck ploughed into a crowd in the southern French city of Nice during Bastille Day celebrations in the evening, officials and reports said. Several of the casualties suffered gunshot wounds as the driver fired a handgun from the cab late Thursday, news agency AFP reported. Others were crushed as people fled the truck, which drove around 2 kilometres through crowds on the Nice seafront, gathered to watch the fireworks for France's national Bastille Day, before the driver was shot and killed by police.
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The Asia-Europe Meeting in the Mongolian capital began with a moment's silence Friday following the attacks in Nice. "It's a sad day for France, Europe and all of us here in Mongolia," EU President Donald Tusk said. "We are united with the French people and government in their fight against violence and terror." In his opening remarks the host, Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj, spoke of "very sad news from France."
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Chinese economic growth held steady in the second quarter, as stimulus measures and increased lending helped the economy to contain any further slowdown. Gross domestic product expanded 6.7% year-on-year in the second quarter, the same rate as seen in the prior period, the National Bureau of Statistics reported. The growth was slightly better than the 6.6% growth forecast by economists and within the government's full year target of 6.5% to 7%. On a quarterly basis, GDP advanced 1.8% in the second quarter, which was faster than the consensus estimate for 1.6% growth. The upshot is that there is no immediate threat to growth in China, Daniel Martin, a senior Asia economist at Capital Economics, said.
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Industrial production in China jumped 6.2% on year in June, the National Bureau of Statistics said. That beat forecasts for 5.9%, and it was up from 6.0% in May. Output added 0.4% on month. The bureau also said that retail sales advanced 10.6% - beating expectations for 9.9% and up from 10.0% in the previous month.
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Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has picked Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his vice presidential running mate, according to press reports late Thursday, but postponed an announcement of the ticket after the terrorist attack in Nice, France.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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Liberum Ups Schroders To Buy From Hold, Keeps Target At 2,399p
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UBS INITIATES RELX WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 1600 PENCE
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TRADERS: DEUTSCHE BANK CUTS RELX TO 'HOLD' ('BUY')
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TRADERS: CITIGROUP CUTS GVC HOLDING TO 'NEUTRAL' ('BUY')
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BERNSTEIN CUTS NEXT TO 'UNDERPERFORM' ('MARKET PERFORM') - TARGET 4600 (5400) PENCE
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BERNSTEIN CUTS MARKS & SPENCER TO 'UNDERPERFORM' ('MP') - TARGET 285 (360) PENCE
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TRADERS: GOLDMAN RAISES ASHMORE GROUP TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL')
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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DCC reiterated its outlook for its current financial year to end-March 2017, saying it expects "another year of profit growth and development". The Irish distribution and outsourcing group said in a statement ahead of its annual general meeting that the UK's vote to leave the European Union is not expected to have any "material direct impact" on its business as it has "relatively little cross-border trade". DCC said its operating profit for the first quarter to end-June was "significantly ahead" of the previous year, and "modestly ahead" of expectations, driven by the performance of its DCC Energy business, which in turn was boosted by acquisitions it completed in the previous year.
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BP said late Thursday it expects to take a pre-tax non-operating charge in relation to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico of around USD5.2 billion in its results for the second quarter of 2016. This will take the total cumulative pretax charge in relation to the oil spill to USD61.6 billion, BP said, or USD44.0 billion after tax. The company said that, after "significant progress" in resolving outstanding claims related to Deepwater Horizon it could now reliably estimate all of its remaining material liabilities in connection to the incident.
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Burberry may delay plans for a new factory in Leeds as it considers the consequences of the UK's vote to leave the European Union, Chairman John Peace told the company's annual general meeting Thursday, the Guardian reported. Peace said the company was reviewing the delivery time for the designs of the planned GBP50 million facility as it looked at the "economic consequences" of Brexit. According to the newspaper, Peace said the Leeds factory was still going ahead, but the pace of investment might be slowed depending on how "events unfold in the next few weeks".
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Public transport operator FirstGroup said revenue fell in its first quarter on a constant currency basis, but said it expects to make strong progress for the full year in spite of the "challenging and uncertain trading environment" in several of its markets. FirstGroup said revenue declined 1.4% on a constant currency basis in the three months ended June when compared to the same period a year earlier, as like-for-like passenger revenue fell 5.0% in its US Greyhound coach business and dropped 1.4% in the UK-based First Bus business. These declines were due to muted passenger demand in the US and lower high street retail footfall and congestion in the UK, offsetting rises in First Student, First Transit and First Rail, the company said.
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HomeServe said trading is currently in line with expectations. The home emergency business said it expects to deliver "good growth" over the current financial year but said trading will be weighted to the second half, as usual. HomeServe, which provides emergency home insurance and repair services, has just exited the first quarter of its current financial year, which will end in March 2017, and the company's businesses in the UK, France, Spain and Italy all are performing as expected.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Melrose Industries said all the anti-trust conditions concerning the proposed USD1.44 billion acquisition of US manufacturing firm Nortek have been satisfied after regulatory approval was secured in the US. Melrose struck a deal to acquire Nortek earlier this month, backing the acquisition with a fully-underwritten rights issue of 12 new shares at 95.00 pence per share for each 1 existing share, raising a total of GBP1.61 billion
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Collectibles trader Stanley Gibbons Group said its chief executive and chief financial officer have stepped down from the board as it decided to move management to the UK as part of its ongoing repositioning. The company said that it has already exceeded its planned GBP5 million in targeted cost savings from its rationalisation and repositioning plan, and said that following acquisitions in recent years, it has recognised that the majority of its activities are now in the UK and is now "reconsidering the benefits of off-shore status" for the group as a whole. As such, it has decided that the location of its executive board and management team should have "more UK emphasis" in order to better meet the needs of the company. This has resulted in Chief Executive Mike Hall and Chief Financial Officer Donal Duff stepping down from the board. Newly appointed Managing Director Andrew Cook has joined the board as chief financial officer, whilst also newly appointed Chairman Elect Harry Wilson will become executive chairman.
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Faroe Petroleum said it has raised GBP62.0 million from the large, discounted share placing announced on Thursday to help fund the acquisition of five producing oil and gas fields in the Norwegian North Sea.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Microsoft won a major legal battle with the US Justice Department when a federal appeals court ruled that the government can't force the company to turn over emails or other personal data stored on computers overseas. The ruling is another setback for the Justice Department's efforts to force technology companies to comply with government orders for data, following the collapse earlier this year of two cases involving Apple's refusal to help open locked iPhones.
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Xerox privately rejected a bid to merge its document business with RR Donnelley & Sons, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter. Xerox in January announced plans to break into two businesses, splitting its business-outsourcing operations from its legacy printer and copier division. RR Donnelley, which is also in the process of breaking up, expressed interest in putting its operations together with Xerox's remaining copier business, the report said.
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Friday's Shareholder Meetings

DCC
ATTRAQT Group
HomeServe
JPMorgan Japan Smaller Companies Trust
Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust
Sepura
Bloomsbury Publishing
Braveheart Investment Group
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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