Moneysupermarket.Com Share News (MONY)

LONDON (Alliance News) - easyJet was a leading gainer in a positive early market Monday, up 3.0% after being raised to Buy from Neutral by UBS.

At the other end of the FTSE 100 index, Royal Bank of Scotland was down 0.5% after a newspaper report that it had to pay a consortium comprising private equity firms and the Church of England GBP180.0 million for backing the bank's aborted attempt to float its Williams & Glyn business on the stock market.

In the FTSE 250, new index member Petra Diamonds was up 8.2% after an upbeat trading statement. The stock also was upgraded to Buy from Hold by Panmure Gordon. Cobham was down 13% after the defence and aerospace technology company issued a profit warning.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.6% at 7,060.06
FTSE 250: up 0.4% at 18,003.60
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 829.32
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Hang Seng: up 0.9% at 23,578.19
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.3% at 17,234.42
DJIA: closed down 0.1% at 18,145.71
S&P 500: closed flat at 2,141.16
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GBP: firm at USD1.2232 (USD1.2209)
EUR: flat at USD1.0885 (USD1.0875)

GOLD: flat at USD1,265.80 per ounce (USD1,266.40)
OIL (Brent): flat at USD51.66 a barrel (USD51.62)

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

08:30 Germany Markit services, manufacturing and composite PMI preliminary
09:00 EU Markit services, manufacturing and composite PMI preliminary
09:00 Italy trade balance
11:00 UK CBI industrial trends and distributive trades surveys
13:30 US Chicago Fed national activity index
13:30 Canada wholesale sales
14:05 US Fed's Dudley and Bullard speeches
14:45 US Markit manufacturing PMI preliminary
16:15 Switzerland SNB Chairman Jordan speech
18:30 US Fed's Evans speech
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UK Prime Minister Theresa May has offered to involve Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in regular formal talks on the Brexit process in an effort to quell concern about her handling of the situation. Downing Street said May will tell the leaders of the devolved administrations concerned about a possible hard Brexit that final decisions about her approach had not yet been taken and "how the UK leaves the EU will not boil down to a binary choice".
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French authorities are to start clearing the squalid refugee camp in Calais known as the "Jungle" and dispersing its residents across the country. The clearing of the settlement is scheduled to begin on Monday morning, with buses used to transport the majority of the camp's estimated 6,500 residents to temporary accommodation centres. Dismantling of the camp is then expected to begin on Tuesday, a spokesman for the French interior ministry said. Ahead of the looming eviction, violence in the camp flared, with tear gas released by police on Saturday and Sunday evenings amid clashes involving small rocks being thrown.
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The British Bankers' Association, the trade body for the UK banking industry, has warned large banks are getting ready to relocate out of the UK as soon as early next year due to fears around Brexit. Writing in The Observer, BBA Chief Executive Anthony Browne also said smaller banks may start relocations out of the UK before Christmas 2016. "Their hands are quivering over the relocated button," Browne said as he reiterated the view in the banking industry that the UK must keep "passporting" rights, which allow UK banks to operate in Europe without the need for separate authorisation.
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Top EU officials are to hold talks with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel on Monday as the bloc tries to salvage a landmark trade deal with Canada currently being blocked by a regional Belgian parliament. Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland was on the brink of tears Friday as she said that an agreement on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement had become "impossible" following talks with the premier of Wallonia, which has been withholding its approval for Belgium to green-light the deal. However, European Parliament President Martin Schulz has said he is "very optimistic" that the deal can be salvaged.
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Rejecting Italy's spending plans would "be the beginning of the end" for the EU, Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan warned, as Italy sharpened its tone in an ongoing dispute with Brussels. Italy is planning a budget shortfall for 2017 of 2.3% of gross domestic product, whereas in April it had agreed with the European Commission on a 1.8% deficit. It says it needs extra money for a migration crisis and post-earthquake reconstruction.
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China's most senior Communist Party leaders gathered in Beijing on Monday for a key meeting that could set the tone for the rest of President Xi Jinping's tenure. The four-day plenum of the party's Central Committee will focus on improving party discipline and supervision amid an ongoing crackdown on official corruption, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
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Japan's manufacturing activity expanded at the fastest pace in nine months in October, survey figures from IHS Markit showed. The Nikkei Flash Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, or PMI, rose to 51.7 in October from 50.4 in September. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector.
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Japan's foreign trade balance turned to a surplus in September from a deficit in the previous year, as imports fell faster than exports, preliminary figures from the Ministry of Finance showed. The trade balance showed a surplus of JPY498.3 billion in September versus a shortfall of JPY121.3 billion in the same month of 2015. That was above the surplus of JPY366.1 billion expected by economists. Exports fell 6.9% year-over-year in September and imports plunged by 16%.
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Donald Trump's campaign manager admitted Sunday that the Republican presidential candidate is lagging behind Democrat Hillary Clinton with only two weeks to go before election day. "We are behind," Kellyanne Conway said on broadcaster NBC. Clinton has "tremendous advantages," Conway said. Husband and previous president Bill Clinton, current president Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are all campaigning for Hillary Clinton - "all much more popular than she can hope to be".
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Islamic State militants seized parts of a strategic western town in Iraq in an apparent response to an ongoing government campaign to recapture their main Iraqi stronghold, the northern city of Mosul. The jihadis captured northern districts of the town of Rutbah as well as local government offices in its centre, military officials said. The attack on Rutbah, near a strategic junction where the highway west from Baghdad forks towards the Syrian and Jordanian borders, is typical of the group's tactic of launching a major assault elsewhere when it comes under military pressure. It came as Kurdish Peshmerga troops advancing towards Mosul from the east and north-east claimed further gains against the extremist Sunni organization.
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A three-day long truce in the Yemeni conflict expired at 11:59 pm local time GMT Saturday, despite a plea from the UN's Yemen envoy for its extension. Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed called on all parties to the conflict to continue the truce for at least another 72 hours, saying that it was largely holding "despite reported violations from both sides in several areas." Yemen's Houthi rebel movement, which controls the capital Sana'a and much of the more populous north of the country, is at war with forces aligned to internationally recognized President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi, who is backed by a Saudi-led air campaign.
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A senior politician from South Africa's governing African National Congress on Sunday launched a surprise attack on his party, calling on President Jacob Zuma to resign. "When I said the entire ANC leadership...must take the fall, I meant everybody, myself included, including President Zuma," ANC parliamentary chief whip Jackson Mthembu told broadcaster eNCA. The party suffered heavy losses in local elections in August as voters punished them for corruption, cronyism, poor public services and an unemployment rate of about 27%.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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TRADERS: JPMORGAN CUTS UK STOCKS TO 'NEUTRAL'
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TRADERS: RBC CUTS STANDARD CHARTERED TO 'UNDERPERFORM' ('SECTOR PERFORM')
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TRADERS: MACQUARIE RAISES ST JAMES'S PLACE TO 'NEUTRAL' ('UNDERPERFORM')
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UBS RAISES EASYJET TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 1050 (1070) PENCE
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PANMURE RAISES PETRA DIAMONDS TO 'BUY' ('HOLD') - TARGET 154 (120) PENCE
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Liberum Starts Auto Trader Group At Buy, Target At 500p
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Liberum Starts Zoopla Property Group At Buy, Target At 415p
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Liberum Starts MoneySupermarket.com Group At Hold, Target At 305p
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TRADERS: BARCLAYS RESUMES WILLIAM HILL WITH 'EQUAL WEIGHT'
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said its has submitted a biologics licence application for its Shingrix shingles vaccine in the US. The submission is seeking approval from the US Food & Drug Administration for Shingrix to be used to treat shingles for people aged 50 or over. Glaxo added the regulatory submissions for the drug in both the European Union and Canada are on track for 2016.
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Gold miner Randgold Resources said it is continuing to invest in its operations in Ivory Coast and said the performance of its Tongon gold mine in the country is continuing to improve. Randgold Chief Executive Mark Bristow, speaking at a golf day the company sponsored in Ivory Coast, said the group is "building a solid portfolio of targets here, and we're still adding new exploration permits" in the country. Bristow said Randgold is "increasingly confident" Ivory Coast could house its next major gold discovery and said the company is particularly excited about the Boundali permit.
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Advertising and marketing group WPP said its FITCH retail and brand consultancy has bought a majority stake in StartJG Hong Kong. StartJG Hong Kong, based in Hong Kong, is a brand and customer experience design consultant. No financial details on the acquisition were disclosed.
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A consortium comprising private equity firms and the Church of England has been paid at least GBP180.0 million by Royal Bank of Scotland Group for backing the bank's aborted attempt to float its Williams & Glyn business on the stock market, the Guardian reported. RBS scrapped the initial public offering of Williams & Glyn in August, saying it has spent around GBP1.50 billion over seven years trying to spin-off the business but would now seek to sell it instead. RBS has to sell Williams & Glyn by the end of 2017 to meet European Union state aid rules.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Defence and aerospace technology company Cobham said trading in the third quarter has remained challenging and was behind its expectations, meaning its results for 2016 are set to miss its forecasts. Cobham said the underperformance has been driven by soft trading in its satellite communications and wireless business units and in the Electronic Solutions arm of its Advanced Electronic Solutions unit. Cobham anticipates an uptick in trading in the fourth quarter but said the softness in the third will mean full-year results miss its previous expectations.
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Oil services company John Wood Group said it has secured a five-year contract working on the Hibernia platform, offshore Newfoundland in Canada. John Wood will provide engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance services to the platform. No financial details on the contract were disclosed but John Wood said options are in place for the contract to be extended for two further five-year periods.
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Petra Diamonds said production in the first quarter of its financial year grew by a third year-on-year and it generated revenue, having not held a diamond sale a year before. The diamond miner, focused on South Africa, said production in the first quarter to the end of September was 1.1 million carats, up 30% from the 842,796 carats it produced a year prior. This was driven by improved grades and additional tailings production from the Kimberley Ekapa mine. Revenue for the period was USD94.7 million with 745,447 carats sold. Petra did not hold a diamond sale in the first quarter of its prior financial year.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Plus500 said it is on track to meet market expectations for its full year results, having seen consistent revenue and customer number growth in the first nine months of the year. Plus500, which provides an online platform for retail customers to trade contracts for difference, said its revenue for the nine months to September 30 was USD236.3 million, a 14% increase from USD207.9 million the year prior. However, the figure for the third quarter alone was down year-on-year, with revenue of USD77.5 million for the three months to September 30, down 4% from USD80.9 million the year prior. Plus 500 said in the three months to September 30 it added 25,083 new customers, up 47% from 17,047 in the same period in 2015
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Bond International Software said it is recommending an increased offer for a purchase of its subsidiaries from Symphony Technology Group, instead of a final takeover bid by Constellation Software. Bond said Symphony has increased the consideration payable for Bond's recruitment software subsidiaries to GBP22.8 million from around GBP19.4 million. With the addition of an agreement to buy Bond's real estate asset for GBP1.8 million, the total deal is worth GBP24.1 million. Bond said the offer should allow a distribution of between 127.0 pence to 129.5p per share after a voluntary liquidation of the company.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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AT&T announced a definitive agreement to purchase Time Warner Inc in a stock-and-cash transaction valued at USD107.50 per share. Both the companies boards have unanimously approved the transaction. This purchase price implies a total equity value of USD85.4 billion and a total transaction value of USD108.7 billion, including Time Warner's net debt. Post-transaction, Time Warner shareholders will own between 14.4% and 15.7% of AT&T shares on a fully-diluted basis based on the number of AT&T shares outstanding. Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO, said: "This is a perfect match of two companies with complementary strengths who can bring a fresh approach to how the media and communications industry works for customers, content creators, distributors and advertisers."
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Rockwell Collins and B/E Aerospace announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Rockwell Collins will acquire B/E Aerospace for approximately USD6.4 billion in cash and stock, plus the assumption of USD1.9 billion in net debt. Separately, Rockwell Collins reported fourth quarter fiscal year 2016 earnings per share from continuing operations increased 14% to USD1.58, compared to USD1.38 in the prior year. Total sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016 were USD1.45 billion, a 4% increase from the same period in fiscal year 2015.
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Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips Electronics reported its third-quarter net income climbed 18% to EUR383 million from last year's EUR324 million. Philips reported sales of EUR5.90 billion, higher than EUR5.84 billion a year ago. The company said its outlook for 2016 remains unchanged, as it expects further earnings improvements in the fourth quarter of the year.
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Monday's Shareholder Meetings

CPL Resources
McBride
Shanks Group (re proposed merger & rights issue)
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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