Next Share News (NXT)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares have opened flat to slightly lower Thursday, following negative performances by stock markets in the US and Asia.

Most of the early news interest is in FTSE 250 stocks, with Poundland shares down 4.4% after announcing a GBP50 million share placing to fund its 99p Stores acquisition and giving a mixed trading update. Thomas Cook is up 3.6% after providing an upbeat trading statement.

Among blue-chips, fashion retailer Next is the top gainer, up 1.6%, after Nomura raised the stock to Buy from Neutral.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 6,024.87
FTSE 250: flat at 16,652.66
AIM ALL-SHARE: flat at 731.25
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Hang Seng: down 0.9% at 21,109.00
Nikkei 225: closed down 2.8% at 17,571.83
DJIA: closed down 0.3% at 16,279.89
S&P 500: closed down 0.2% at 1,938.76
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GBP: up at USD1.5265
EUR: up at USD1.1207

GOLD: up at USD1,137.05 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD48.08 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Thursday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in BST)

09:00 Germany IFO survey
09:00 Italy Industrial Orders and Sales
09:00 Italy Retail Sales
09:30 UK BBA Mortgage Approvals
10:15 EU Targeted LTRO
11:00 Italy Trade Balance
13:30 US Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims
13:30 US Durable Goods Orders
13:30 US Chicago Fed National Activity Index
15:00 US New Home Sales
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage
16:00 US Kansas Fed manufacturing activity
22:00 US Fed Chair Yellen Speech
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Japan's all industry activity increased for the second straight month in July, defying economists' expectations to remain flat, figures from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed. The all industry activity index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% month-over-month in July, slower than the 0.5% climb in June, revised up from 0.3%. Economists had expected the index to remain flat during the month.
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The Colombian government and the leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) reached a ground-breaking agreement in their ongoing peace talks in Havana. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos held a historic meeting with FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, also known with the alias Timochenko. The two men agreed to sign a peace agreement within six months, Santos said.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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CITIGROUP CUTS PREMIER FARNELL TO 'SELL' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 90 (140) PENCE
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LIBERUM INITIATES MOSS BROS GROUP WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 115 PENCE
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GOLDMAN RAISES KAZ MINERALS TO 'NEUTRAL' ('SELL') - TARGET 130 (143) PENCE
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LIBERUM RAISES TATE & LYLE TO 'BUY' ('SELL') - TARGET 670 (505) PENCE
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LIBERUM RAISES ASOS TO 'BUY' ('HOLD') - TARGET 3300 PENCE
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NOMURA RAISES NEXT PLC TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 8,000 (7,600) PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Rolls-Royce Holdings is set to win a big share of GBP100 million worth of contracts set to be awarded by EDF to supply the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant in the UK, the BBC reports. France's EDF is understood to have selected Rolls-Royce, the blue-chip aerospace and engineering firm, to supply heat exchangers to the plant in a GBP25 million deal. It has also awarded a joint venture of Rolls-Royce and Nuvia Group, the French nuclear company, a deal to supply systems to treat nuclear waste worth GBP75 million, the BBC said.
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Catering and outsourcing company Compass Group announced a reshuffle of its management team, which will see Finance Director Dominic Blakemore move to the role of chief operating officer for Europe, excluding Turkey. Blakemore will replace Andrew Martin, who will step down from the company on December 1. Martin, in addition to be chief operating officer for Europe, also oversees the Japan operations, but Blakemore's role will not encompass this part of the business. On the same day, Johnny Thomson, currently regional managing director for Compass' Latin American business, will replace Blakemore as finance director and will be made an executive director.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Media and events company UBM confirmed press reports that it has entered talks to sell its PR Newswire business. Reports on Wednesday indicated that PR software and intelligence provider Cision, which is owned by private equity firm GTCR LLC, was preparing to make a bid for the PR Newswire business, which has been valued by analyst at around GBP500 million or more. UBM, in a short statement, said it is in "highly preliminary discussions with a number of parties" about the possible sale of PR Newswire.
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Poundland Group said it will raise GBP50 million through the placing of shares in order to fund its acquisition of 99p Stores, and said that it expects core pretax profit for its full financial year to meet market expectations, although it will be weighted towards the second half. The placing will be conducted through an accelerated bookbuild process, with JP Morgan Cazenove acting as sole bookrunner and Shore Capital acting as co-lead manager. The pricing of the placing will be decided at the close of the bookbuilding process.
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Thomas Cook Group said summer holiday sales were in line with expectations and that it has had an encouraging start to winter trading, leaving its guidance for full-year earnings unchanged. The travel operator said that all markets performed in line, with Northern Europe achieving particularly strong trading in the second half of the year. The summer season is 91% sold, in line with the same time last year, and all major source markets have seen improved bookings for the winter season, Thomas Cook said.
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Design, engineering and project management consultancy WS Atkins said its first half performance is set to be in line with its expectations and said its outlook for the full year remains optimistic. Atkins, which will close out its first half at the end of September, said its UK transportation and water, ground and environment businesses are all expected to show an improvement in the first half, following challenging trading conditions a year earlier, while its aerospace business has secured some contract wins, but it has cut jobs in this division in the half.
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Publisher and events company Euromoney Institutional Investor said it expects to report a fall in pretax profit for its full financial year and a 5% decline in revenue for its fourth quarter, as challenging market conditions showed no signs of improvement. Meanwhile, Daily Mail and General Trust, which holds a 67% stake in Euromoney, reiterated its own full-year guidance, and said its adjusted results are expected to be in line with market expectations. Euromoney expects to report a pretax profit, adjusted for amortisation and other exceptional items, of no less than GBP107 million for the year to end-September, down from GBP116.2 million a year before. Daily Mail and General Trust said it is trading in line with expectations, as it reported that its revenue for the eleven months to end August fell 1% on a reported basis. On an underlying basis, at constant exchange rates and adjusted for disposals, closures and non-annual events amongst other costs, revenue for the eleven months was flat.
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UK energy markets regulator Ofgem said it has selected a Balfour Beatty-led consortium as the preferred bidder to own and operate the offshore transmission link for the Humber Gateway windfarm for the next twenty years. The consortium, which involves Balfour Beatty Investments and Equitix, the infrastructure investor, won the preferred bidder status following a competitive tender.
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Software company Micro Focus International said trading has been in line with its expectations in its financial year so far. In a short statement to be delivered at its annual general meeting, Executive Chairman Kevin Loosemore said trading in its current financial year to the end of April 2016 has been in line with its guidance, with revenue expected to fall by between 2% and 4% in constant currencies.
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Private equity investor SVG Capital said its net asset value increased in the first half of its financial year and said its investment pipeline looks strong for the remainder of the year. SVG said its net asset value at the end of July was 606 pence per share, up 3% since the end of December. It made a 4.0% total return on its net investment portfolio in the half, though this was constrained by a weak euro, with its total return up 9.0% in constant currencies.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Activist hedge fund Elliott Capital Advisors has gatecrashed the takeover of property company Quintain Estates & Development by US private equity group Lone Star, The Times reported. Elliott has taken control of nearly 68 million Quintain shares, or around 13% of the company's share capital, via a contracts-for-difference arrangement. It has now claimed that Lone Star's GBP700 million agreed takeover offer for Quintain "substantially undervalues" the developer, which is developing large tracts of land in the area around Wembley Stadium in north west London. The deadline for Lone Star's offer for Quintain on Wednesday was extended to Wednesday next week.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Australia's corporate watchdog is investigating whether Volkwagen provided false or misleading information about its cars' vehicle emission levels to owners and drivers, news reports said. The German carmaker has been under pressure worldwide since acknowledging earlier this week that it manipulated emissions tests of its diesel vehicles in the US. The revelation led to the resignation of Volkswagen's chief executive Martin Winterkorn on Wednesday.
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Japanese bank Nomura Holdings said it would pay EUR440 million to Italy's Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena over massive losses incurred in derivatives trading. Nomura said in a statement it believed the transactions with the bank had been "conducted legally and appropriately" and that it did not admit any wrongdoing in connection with the legal settlement. The Japanese company said it considered the settlement to be "in its best interests," when taking into account the views of European authorities.
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Boeing said it has obtained orders and commitments from China for 300 aircraft worth USD38 billion at list prices. The aerospace giant also said it will to open a facility in China for the interiors completion, paint and delivery of Boeing 737 aircraft to Chinese customers. The announcements follow China President Xi Jinping's visit to Boeing's plant in Everett, Washington. Jinping is on his first state visit to the US. Boeing said the Chinese orders and commitments relates to 190 single-aisle 737s and 50 wide-body jetliners. Further, lessors ICBC Financial Leasing Co and CDB Leasing Co are buying 60 737s.
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Japanese electronics maker Sharp will miss its first-half profit forecast and lower its target for the full year as rising competition among suppliers of liquid-crystal displays pushes down prices, Bloomberg reported citing a person familiar with the matter. The company expects to fall short of its JPY10.00 billion outlook for operating income when it reports earnings for the six months ending September 30. The company may report an operating loss for the first half or break even, the report said.
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Facebook said 360-degree videos will begin rolling out in News Feed. To create 360 videos, a special set of cameras is used to record all 360 degrees of a scene simultaneously. This means that when the video is playing on Facebook, viewers can choose what angle they want to see it from. On the web they can do this by dragging around the video with their cursor, and on mobile devices they do it by dragging with finger - or even just by turning their device.
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Belgian brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev said it will acquire Los Angeles-based Golden Road Brewing. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Golden Road Brewing will join Goose Island Beer Company, Blue Point Brewing, 10 Barrel Brewing and Elysian Brewing as part of Anheuser-Busch's High End Business Unit's portfolio.
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Thursday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Micro Focus
Vectura
ReNeuron Group
Conviviality Retail
Phoenix IT Group
Versarien
Fiske
NWF Group
Ryanair Holdings
Tungsten
Worldwide Healthcare Trust
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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