Ocado Share News (OCDO)

LONDON (Alliance News) - A downbeat economic outlook from the World Bank has combined with continued weak crude oil prices to push down London stock prices at the open Wednesday.

Retailers continue to dominate UK corporate news, with SuperGroup and Just Eat topping the FTSE 250 leaders table, up 9.2% and 2.9%, respectively, after providing strong Christmas trading updates.

In the FTSE 100, Burberry shares are up 0.5%, after the luxury fashion retailer said retail sales rose 14% year-on-year during the third quarter, with the growth driven by mainland China, Korea and the Americas.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 1.2% at 6,463.27
FTSE 250: down 0.8% at 15,958.98
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.3% at 700.23
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Hang Seng: closed down 0.4% at 24,112.60
Nikkei 225: closed down 1.7% at 16,795.96
DJIA: closed down 0.2% at 17,613.68
S&P 500: closed 0.3% at 2,023.03
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.5202
EUR-USD: up at USD1.1787

GOLD: down at USD1,230.59 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD45.73 a barrel

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

09:00 Italy Consumer Price Index
10:00 UK CB Leading Economic Index
10:00 EU Industrial Production
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
13:30 US Export and Import Price indices
13:30 US Retail Sales
14:15 UK BOE Governor Carney speech
15:00 US Business Inventories
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks
18:00 US Fed's Beige Book
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The fate of the European Central Bank's government bond-buying programme could be decided Wednesday, when Europe's top court issues an opinion on the legitimacy of the scheme. One of the advocates-general of the European Court of Justice, Pedro Cruz Villalon, is to release a non-binding interim position on the ECB's so-called Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) programme, which was unveiled at the height of the euro debt crisis in 2012 but has never been activated. Should Villalon give the go ahead, bank chief Mario Draghi could launch the OMT as early as next week.
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The global economy is forecast to grow moderately this year after a weaker than expected 2014, the World Bank said. The Washington-based development agency projects global growth of 3% in 2015, following 2.6% growth last year. It cited stronger growth in the US and Britain but weakness in the eurozone and Japan. Developing countries will see growth rise to 4.8% from 4.4% last year. Soft commodity prices, low interest rates, divergent monetary policies in major economies and weak world trade were expected to impact growth, the World Bank's Global Economic Prospects report said.
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The M2 money stock in Japan climbed 3.6% on year in December, the Bank of Japan said - worth JPY893.9 trillion. That was in line with expectations and unchanged from November. The M3 money stock gained an annual 2.9% to JPY1,209.1 trillion - unchanged from the previous month but missing forecasts for 3.0%.
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Searchers were on Wednesday focused on finding the fuselage of the crashed AirAsia plane, after they retrieved the aircraft's flight recorders this week, an Indonesian official said. "We believe there are still many bodies there," said the search operations director, Air Commodore Suryadi Supriyadi. Divers retrieved the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder from the seabed on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
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US President Barack Obama called for Congress to pass a law to bolster cyber security that would promote sharing of information about breaches between the government and companies. Obama's proposal would criminalize the overseas sale of stolen credit cards and bank account numbers and expand law enforcement's ability to prosecute hackers by going after those who sell so-called botnets that are used to send spam and conduct denial of service attacks.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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GOLDMAN RAISES PEARSON TO 'NEUTRAL' ('SELL') - TARGET 1300 (1130) PENCE
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GOLDMAN INITIATES UBM WITH 'NEUTRAL' - TARGET 520 PENCE
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UBS CUTS STANDARD CHARTERED TO 'NEUTRAL' ('BUY') - PRICE TARGET 980 (1120) PENCE
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MERRILL CUTS DRAX GROUP TO 'UNDERPERFORM' ('BUY') - TARGET 330 (640) PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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British luxury fashion retailer Burberry Group said retail sales rose 14% year-on-year during the third quarter, with the growth driven by mainland China, Korea and the Americas, although it warned about weaker trading in Hong Kong. Burberry said retail revenue came in at GBP604 million for the three months to end-December. The retailer said comparable sales were up 8% in the quarter on the year before, with the balance from new space, which is a slowdown from growth of 12% in the first half of the year. Analysts were expecting growth of around 7% for the quarter.
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Barratt Developments said it is on track for a significant improvement in its full-year results after reporting a rise in total completions, average selling prices and forward sales in the first half. The FTSE 100-listed housebuilder said total completions in the six months to the end of December rose 12.5% to 6,971 from 6,195 a year earlier. The total average selling prices for the company's houses rose 8.4% to GBP229,000 from GBP211,200 a year ago. Total forward sales for the company, including joint ventures, rose 17.1% to stand at GBP1.68 billion at the end of December, up from GBP1.44 billion a year earlier.
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AstraZeneca said the PEGASUS-TIMI 54 study has successfully met its primary efficacy targets, with a preliminary analysis showing no unexpected safety issues. In the trial, which involved 21,000 patients, researchers assessed Brilinta tablets administered at either 60mg twice daily or 90mg twice daily, plus low-dose aspirin for the secondary prevention of atherothrombotic events in people who had suffered a heart attack one to three years prior to taking part in the study. A preliminary analysis of the results from the study showed no unexpected safety issues, though AstraZeneca said full analysis of the data is ongoing.
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British Land Co and Oxford Properties said they have secured a series of new lettings at the Leadenhall Building in the City of London. The two have secured a total of 93,400 square feet of new lettings at the building, nicknamed the Cheesegrater, including Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners, the firm of Richard Rogers, the architect of the tower. The two companies said they also have signed deal for a further five floors in three other deals, bringing the total office space either let or under offer at the building to around 70%.
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Ryanair Holdings has put more pressure on Aer Lingus Group to accept a bid from International Consolidated Airlines Group after it speculated that the owner of British Airways and Iberia may return with a higher offer later this week, The Times reported. Ryanair, which is the largest shareholder in Aer Lingus with a 29% stake, said IAG may have to put an offer of EUR2.50 to EUR2.70 per share on the table in order to win control of Aer Lingus. Its shares closed in London on Tuesday at EUR2.46 per share.
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The Royal Bank of Scotland Group will no longer pay annual cash bonuses to top executives, Sky News reported late on Tuesday. Sky News said the move comes under the bank's efforts to "defuse" the political battle over pay to top personnel at the bank. Sky News said it "understands" that City shareholders' reaction has been mixed to plans to pay all variable rewards in the form of shares that vest over four and five years.
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RBS's request for relief from regulations requiring it to form a US holding company by the middle of 2016 has been approved, according to the Federal Reserve's website. According to a list of actions taken by the US central bank during the week ended December 20, 2014, the request was approved on December 10 last year. The news was first reported by the Financial Times on Tuesday.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Ocado Group said gross retail sales in December were up 14.8% on last year. In a short Christmas trading update, the online-only grocer said that its "solid" growth performance from the fourth quarter continued into the run up to Christmas, with sales on its biggest day leading up to Christmas of nearly GBP6 million, up 15% year-on-year.
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Cineworld Group posted a rise in revenue for the full year and said it expects its profit for the year to be at the top end of market guidance, as its UK and Ireland business outperformed the wider market. The FTSE 250 cinema chain said total revenue for the 53 weeks to January 1 was up 5.2% year-on-year, noting this year includes an extra trading week. On a 52-week comparison, group revenue rose 1.7% year-on-year.
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SuperGroup, owner of the clothing brand Superdry, said it saw a "strong performance" over the peak Christmas trading period, and is comfortable with delivering a profit for the year in the region of GBP60 million to GBP65 million. In a trading update Wednesday, the company said total retail sales for the 11 weeks to January 10 rose just short of 18%, while on a like-for-like basis sales grew by more than 12%, which it said was against softer comparatives than the first half.
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Online takeaway company Just Eat said it is "highly confident" for its 2014 results, both financial and operational, after it saw a 50% increase in orders during the year. The online and mobile takeaway food ordering platform said total orders in 2014 increased 52% year-on-year, boosted by the consolidation of orders from its French business in the second half of the year, although it said that excludes any Brazilian orders from November onwards when that business became an associate. On a like-for-like basis, it said orders were up 50%.
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Dechra Pharmaceuticals said trading in the first half of its financial year was in line with its expectations and said it expects to meet its forecast for the full year, despite revenue being held back by currency fluctuations. Group revenue for the six months to the end of December rose 6% against what the FTSE 250-listed group said was a soft comparator the year before. At constant currencies, group revenue rose 12% in the half.
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Premier Oil said production and revenue increased in 2014 and said it has hedged around 40% of its production for 2015 to protect itself from the weak oil price, but said it has deferred all exploration in 2015 that it is not already committed to. Production during 2014 averaged 63,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day, up 9.3% compared to the 58,200 barrels of oil equivalent produced per day in 2013. The company saw production increase in Indonesia, Vietnam and the UK, slightly offset by production decreasing from its assets in Pakistan and Mauritania.
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Jupiter Fund Management reported an end to nine consecutive quarters of net inflows, but positive market movements allowed the FTSE 250 constituent to report a rise in assets under management over the final three months of last year. In a statement, Jupiter Fund Management reported GBP626 million in net outflows over the course of the fourth quarter, the first time it has reported an overall net outflow since the second quarter of 2012.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Fenner Expects 2015 FY Earnings Slightly Below Previous Range; Says There Will Be Exceptional Charge From Cost Savings Costs
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Digital healthcare services company Totally issued a warning on its 2014 results, saying its loss will be wider than market expectations due to a fall in revenue caused by contract delays. Totally said it had seen a number of delays in signing new contracts and renewals with a small number of Clinical Commissioning Groups, a Commissioning Support Unit, and a specialist healthcare organisation, all of which had been expected to contribute to its revenue for the year to the end of December. It expects the contracts which were delayed will be successfully executed and will contribute to a stronger performance for the company in 2015.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Technology giant Apple and Google are among four technology companies in the Silicon Valley that have reached a new settlement on a class-action suit related to violation of antitrust laws on poaching each other's employees. The lawsuit alleges that the four technology companies, including Intel Corp and Adobe Systems, conspired not to hire each others employees, a move that will not provide the employees the bargaining power for an increase in wages.
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Shares of Tesla Motors, Inc. plunged six percent in extended trading on Tuesday after the luxury electric car maker's Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk revealed that sales in China have declined significantly in the fourth quarter. Musk also added that Tesla would not be profitable until 2020 on a reported basis, which includes executive compensation and charges. Musk was speaking for the first time in two years at the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit earlier in the day.
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Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Majedie Investments
Fenner
SWP Group
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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