Primary Health Share News (PHP)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Tesco shares are higher amid a firm London open Wednesday, as the market follows a positive lead from Asian trading and digests a string of UK company updates, including from the nation's largest supermarket chain.

In a case of low expectations being met, Tesco shares are up 1.2%, the fourth biggest FTSE 100 riser, despite saying it swung to a loss in its recently-ended financial year, after booking a staggering GBP7.0 billion of impairments, writedowns and restructuring charges as it tried to put a difficult year behind it and get back on track.

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 7,077.04
FTSE 250: up 0.3% at 17,757.26
AIM ALL-SHARE: flat at 751.13
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Hang Seng: up 0.4% at 27,956.76
Nikkei 225: closed up 1.1% at 20,133.90
DJIA: closed down 0.5% at 17,949.59
S&P 500: closed down 0.2% at 2,097.29
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GBP: up at USD1.4951
EUR: up at USD1.0758

GOLD: up at USD1,203.19 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD61.66 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 BST)

09:00 Italy Industrial Orders
09:30 UK BOE MPC Meeting Minutes
10:00 Italy Retail Sales
10:00 Switzerland ZEW Survey
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
14:00 US Housing Price Index
15:00 EU Consumer Confidence Preliminary
15:00 US Existing Home Sales
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks
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The Conservatives pushed into the lead in the daily YouGov poll ahead of the UK election next month, but Labour performed the same trick in the TNS survey, overturning the Tories' lead. The latest YouGov/The Sun poll has the Conservatives on 35% to Labour's 34%, with the Tories gaining two points from the survey on Tuesday to overtake their rivals. UKIP and the Liberal Democrats remained flat at 13% and 7%, respectively, in third and fourth. TNS UK, however, now has Labour in the lead, with the party gaining two points against the poll a week earlier to sit at 34%, with the Tories losing the same number of points to fall to 32%. UKIP gained a point to 15%, with the Liberal Democrats down a point to 8%.
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Japan posted a trade surplus in March for the first time in 33 months amid falling energy prices and a weaker yen, the government said. Japan's trade surplus stood at JPY229.3 billion with shipments growing 8.5% from a year earlier to JPY6.93 trillion and imports down 14.5% to JPY6.9 trillion, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report. The value of Japan's imports of petroleum fell 50.7% from a year earlier and those of liquefied natural gas declined 12.3%, the ministry said.
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The leading index for Germany, which measures the future economic activity, increased at a stable pace in February, figures from the Conference Board showed. The leading economic index climbed 0.4% in February, the same rate of rise as in the previous month. It was the fourth consecutive monthly increase.
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The military coalition led by Saudi Arabia against Yemen's Houthi rebels Tuesday claimed success in its air campaign and said the current operation would end at midnight. Coalition spokesman Ahmed Asiri said Operation Decisive Storm had eliminated the heavy weapons and ballistic missiles held by the mainly Shiite Houthis and allied military units. The new operation would focus on preventing the movement of Houthi militias, protecting civilians, and supporting aid and relief efforts, he said at the coalition's daily press briefing in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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TRADERS: JEFFERIES CUTS HARGREAVES LANSDOWN TO 'HOLD' ('BUY')
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SOCGEN CUTS BRITVIC TO 'HOLD' ('BUY') - TARGET 805 (770) PENCE
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TRADERS: JEFFERIES RAISES JUPITER FUND TO 'BUY' ('HOLD')
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Tesco said it swung to a big loss in its recently-ended financial year, after booking a staggering GBP7.0 billion of impairments, writedowns and restructuring charges as it tried to put a difficult year behind it and get back on track. The UK's largest retailer reported a pretax loss for the year ended February 28 of GBP6.38 billion, compared with a profit of GBP2.26 billion a year earlier, as it booked GBP5.61 billion of impairments, mainly on its property portfolio, GBP570 million of stock-related charges, GBP416 million in restructuring costs, and a GBP208 million adjustment accounting for profit overstatements in previous years. Its closely-watched trading profit, which excludes the one-off items, dropped by 59% to GBP1.39 billion.
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BHP Billiton, the world's biggest miner, said its iron ore production for the third quarter rose 20% year-over-year to 58.98 million tons. Iron ore production for the 2015 financial year is now expected to be 230 million tons, 2% higher than prior guidance. BHP Billiton said it remains on track to deliver group production growth of 16% over the two years to the end of the 2015 financial year.
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Rolls-Royce Holdings said Chief Executive John Rishton will retire on July 2 and be succeeded by former ARM Holdings CEO Warren East. East was CEO of chip designer ARM from 2001 to 2013, and became a non-executive director on the Rolls-Royce board in January 2014.
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Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier reiterated its outlook for the full year, and said the simplification of its corporate structure and name change to RELX is on track to complete at the beginning of July subject to approval at its annual general meeting. Reed Elsevier said that business trends in the first quarter of 2015 remained consistent with 2014 across the group. It continued to focus on organic growth, it said, with limited acquisition activity of GBP28 million in the year to date.
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BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley has said the company has no appetite for a mega-merger, cooling speculation that the takeover of BG Group by Royal Dutch Shell will spark a wave of deals in the oil and gas industry, the Financial Times reports. The comments come amid speculation that BP itself could become a takeover target for ExxonMobil Inc, the US oil group which has long been linked to a bid for the British major.
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BP is seeking buyers for up to USD2 billion worth of its US pipelines and storage terminals as the group seeks to offload some of its non-drilling infrastructure, Bloomberg reported. BP has sent offering materials to potential buyers of two of its assets in the past fortnight, Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the matter. The assets includes its interest in four pipelines and a gas plant along the Gulf of Mexico and 15 storage terminals in the Midwest and East Coast regions, the sources told Bloomberg.
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Vodafone Group has held early talks with French telecoms company Altice SA about acquiring Portuguese cable business Cabovisão, the Financial Times reported. The European Commission cleared Altice's EUR7.4 billion takeover of Portugal Telecom on Monday, on the condition it divests its existing Cabovisão and Oni businesses in Portugal.
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Hammerson said it had signed a GBP415 million unsecured revolving credit facility with a syndicate of nine banks, refinancing an existing GBP505 million facility that was set to mature in April 2016, meaning it will cut its undrawn facilities and reduce borrowing costs.
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British Land got a boost after the UK unit of Facebook Inc leased a further 66,000 square foot of space at the commercial property company's Regent's Place campus in London. British Land said Facebook has leased the fifth floor and floors nine to 16 as well as a ground floor events space at 338 Euston Road, adding to the 87,000 square feet that the US social media giant already has on the Regent's Place campus.
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Travis Perkins said total sales rose 7.2% and like-for-like sales grew 5.1% in the first quarter of 2015, keeping well ahead of its medium-term like-for-like sales growth target. The builders merchant said strong growth in its general merchanting, consumer and contracts businesses more than offset a 3.7% decline in total sales and 6.1% decline in like-for-like sales in its heating and plumbing business.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Bookmaker Ladbrokes said many of its customer metrics improved in the first quarter of 2015 but said betting results have favoured customers and its profits were materially lower in the period. Group net revenue was up 3.3% in the quarter, with UK retail net revenue up 4.3% and digital net revenue up by 9.5%, despite the latter taking a big hit from a sharp fall in revenue from its Sportsbook business which was offset by a good performance in Australia.
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Speciality chemicals company Elementis expressed confidence for 2015, saying it had delivered "encouraging results" in the first quarter of the year. In a statement ahead of its annual general meeting Wednesday, Elementis said that currency movements reduced its first quarter sales by 5% compared to the previous year, although operating profit was reduced by less than 1% as a result of its hedging programme.
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Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment said the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has awarded two US subsidiaries a Casino Service Industry Enterprise Licence.
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Galliford Try said it has been named preferred bidder by Scottish Water on its Quality and Standards IV framework. The project is anticipated to be worth a total of GBP560 million to the ESD joint venture, which comprises FTSE 250-listed Galliford, infrastructure engineering company MWH Treatment and engineering consultancy Black and Veatch.
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Kier Group said it has been named preferred bidder on the GBP170 million first phase of The Ram Quarter regeneration scheme in Wandsworth in south west London.
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Specialty chemicals company Croda International said 2015 has started in line with its expectations and said it expects growth to continue through the year on the back of strong performances in its Personal Care and Life Sciences businesses. Croda said its revenue in the first quarter was GBP284.9 million, compared to GBP274 million a year earlier, with the 4% growth the same in reported and constant currencies
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Deutsche Bank could reach a settlement with US and British authorities as soon as Thursday over claims of interest rate manipulation, Bloomberg news agency reported. The Frankfurt-based bank faces a penalty of up to USD1.5 billion.
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Yahoo!'s Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer outlined plans to explore options for the company's stake in its Japanese division, according to reports. Mayer reportedly said on a conference call that the company has hired advisers to consider opportunities to maximize value for its stake of about 35% in Yahoo Japan, valued at more than USD8 billion. Yahoo! also reported a plunge in first-quarter profit, hurt by lower prices for display ads as well as stock-based compensation expense and restructuring charges. Both quarterly earnings and revenues fell short of Wall Street estimates, denoting the challenges Mayer faces in implementing her turnaround plans at Yahoo.
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Swiss drug maker Roche Holding reported its group sales for the first quarter of 2015 increased about 3% to CHF11.83 billion from CHF11.50 billion in the prior year. Group sales for the quarter were up 5% at constant exchange rates. Roche posted strong sales growth in the first three months in both divisions, with demand for oncology and immunology medicines driving growth in Pharmaceuticals, and immunodiagnostics products driving growth in Diagnostics.
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Energy giant ConocoPhillips is exploring the sale of some its North Sea assets in Norway as it seeks to divest overseas operations, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter. The report said that the company may sell Norwegian assets that are operated by others including stakes in the Aasta Hansteen, Alvheim and Grane fields. Conoco has contacted potential buyers. If sold together, all three stakes may fetch as much as USD1 billion.
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Google's new US wireless service is set to be unveiled as early as Wednesday and is expected to allow customers to pay only for the amount of data they actually use each month, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday citing people familiar with the matter.
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Restaurant operator Yum! Brands Inc said its first quarter profit fell 9% from last year, mainly due to weak performance of its China division. However, the company's quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, came in above analysts' expectations, but its quarterly revenue fell shy of analysts' forecast. At the same time, the company maintained its full year guidance of at lest 10% earnings per share growth in 2015.
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Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Primary Health Properties
Drax
Hammerson
Management Consulting Group
Croda International
Elementis
TSB Banking Group
Pettards Group
Audioboom
Nanoco
Rank Group
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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