Rockhopper Share News (RKH)

LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares have opened slightly higher Friday, as the market awaits US jobs figures later in the day.

Matomy Media Group Ltd became the first initial public offering to be pulled in London in 2014.

The CFO role was front and centre Friday, as RBS and Kentz appointed new ones, while the FT reported that Tesco's is about to depart.

Goldman Sachs has added Marks and Spencer to its Conviction Sell List, while traders say Jefferies has raised Pearson to Buy from Hold.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.3% at 6,669.48
FTSE 250: up 0.2% at 16,388.08
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 854.20
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Hang Seng: down 0.3% at 22,492.78
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.1% at 15,063.77
DJIA: closed flat at 16,572.55
S&P 500: closed down 0.1% at 1,888.77
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GBP-USD: down at USD1.6588
EUR-USD: down at USD1.3699

GOLD: up at USD1,286.80 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD106.23 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Friday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times British Summer Time)

13:30 US Nonfarm Payrolls and Unemployment Rate
13:30 Canada Unemployment Rate
n/a Russia Consumer Price Index
15:00 Canada Ivey Purchasing Managers Index
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The International Monetary Fund said the slowdown in China's economic growth will reduce trend growth on emerging market economies. "China's transition into a slower, if more sustainable, pace of growth will also reduce growth in many other emerging market economies, at least temporarily," the lender said in the analytical chapter for its World Economic Outlook.
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The international search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 moved underwater Friday, the search coordinator announced. An Australian navy ship and a British navy ship are engaged in a joint underwater search operation towing sensitive sonic detectors listening for the signal of the plane's black box. The battery on the black box is expected to expire some time after April 7, but could last until the middle of April. Two submarines were now also engaged in the search.
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The number of Syrians registered as refugees in Lebanon has passed 1 million, giving the country the highest per-capita concentration of refugees worldwide, the UN refugee agency said on Thursday. "The influx of a million refugees would be massive in any country. For Lebanon, a small nation beset by internal difficulties, the impact is staggering," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.
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Russia announced a gas price increase of almost 80% for Ukraine on Thursday, hours after the new government in Kiev named Moscow as an accomplice in the killing of Ukrainian protesters. Ukraine will have to pay USD485 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas starting this April, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said during a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, according to an official transcript.
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The Turkish government on Thursday revoked its Twitter black out, after a ruling from the Constitutional Court declared the ban a violation of protected rights to freedom of expression. The order by the country's highest court was issued late on Wednesday and was officially registered in the gazette on Thursday.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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HSBC RAISES MAN GROUP TO 'OVERWEIGHT' ('UNDERWEIGHT') - TARGET 125 (82) PENCE
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NOMURA CUTS VODAFONE TO 'NEUTRAL' ('BUY') - PRICE TARGET 240 (255) PENCE
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DEUTSCHE BANK INITIATES ROYAL MAIL WITH 'HOLD' - TARGET 587 PENCE
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GOLDMAN ADDS M&S TO 'CONVICTION SELL LIST' ('SELL') - TARGET 340 (420) PENCE
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TRADERS: LIBERUM INITIATES EXPERIAN WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 1230 PENCE
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GOLDMAN CUTS FIRSTGROUP TO 'NEUTRAL' ('BUY')
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TRADERS: JEFFERIES RAISES PEARSON TO 'BUY' ('HOLD')
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Tesco Finance Director Laurie McIlwee is set to resign as early as next week, a move that will leave Chief Executive Philip Clarke as the only executive director on the company's board and under increasing pressure to improve performance, the Financial Times reports. The paper said McIlwee became the focus of investor disquiet in October after Tesco shocked investors by failing to signal a collapse in profits at its central European unit, and it quoted two people familiar with the matter saying he also clashed with Clarke over some areas of the company’s strategy.
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Low-cost airlines easyJet PLC and Flybe Group PLC said they flew more passengers and filled more of the seats in their planes in recent weeks, but Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus Group PLC reported the opposite. EasyJet said it flew 5.1 million passengers in March, up from nearly 4.9 million in March 2013, while load factor, a measure of how many seats on its planes are filled, rose to 91.5%, from 90.5%. Flybe Group said passenger volumes were up 6% on the year to 1.6 million in the three months to the end of March, the fourth quarter of its financial year. Its load factor rose six percentage points to 70% as capacity was also reduced by 4% to 2.2 million seats. Irish airline Aer Lingus, meanwhile, said passenger numbers fell to 703,000 in March, from 757,000 a year earlier, with numbers down on both short-haul and long-haul routes. Its load factor declined to 74.7%, from 79.9% in March 2013.
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Evraz PLC said it has signed and closed the sale of its subsidiary Evraz Vitkovice Steel (EVS) to a group of private investors for USD89 million. The Russian steel maker said the subsidiary was sold to Martinley Holdings Ltd, Nabara Holdings Ltd, Vitect Services Ltd, Hayston Investments Ltd, and Dawnaly Investments Ltd, with each acquiring 20% holdings.
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Royal Dutch Shell PLC is facing an investigation by the US Coast Guard into possible breaches of law and safety regulations in connection with a drilling rig which ran aground in the Arctic off Alaska on December 31, 2012. In a statement published by the Coast Guard's official report, published on Thursday, on the grounding of the Kulluk drilling rig, it drew attention to problems with the safety management systems used on the site and noted a range of badly managed events.
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Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC said it has appointed a new finance chief as it moves to replace Nathan Bostock, who resigned in December fewer than three months since joining the bailed-out bank in order to join Santander UK. In a statement, RBS said it has appointed Ewen Stevenson, who joins from Credit Suisse, where he is currently co-head of EMEA Investment Banking and its Global Financial Institutions Group, Investment Banking division.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Kentz Corporation Ltd said Chief Financial Officer Ed Power will step down on May 29 after reaching retirement age, and will be succeeded by former John Wood Group finance executive Meg Lassarat at that time.
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Workspace Sells Residential Portion Of 2nd Phase Of Development At Bow Enterprise Park To Peabody Enterprises For GBP11M Cash
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Telecom Plus PLC said it is confident of reporting full-year profits in line with consensus market expectations, boosted by a strong fourth-quarter. In a statement, Telecom Plus said its profitability remains in line with market expectations notwithstanding reduced energy consumption as a result of what it called "an exceptionally warm winter."
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Capital & Counties Gets Approval For Earls Court Village Design
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COMPANIES - ALL-SHARE AND AIM
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Rockhopper Exploration Says Pre-Development Activities On Sea Lion Continuing As Scheduled, New Awards In May; Plans 4 Well Exploration Drilling Campaign In 2015
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Clinigen Secures News 4-Year GBP35M Revolving Credit Facility With GBP15M Top-Up Option
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Patagonia Gold Expects Production From Lomada And Cap-Oeste To Increase To 72,000oz In 2015
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RusPetro 2013 Pretax Loss USD74.2M, Widened From USD28.1M; 2013 Operating Loss Narrowed But Books Forex Loss Of USD25.6M, Vs Gain Of USD23.8M; Revenue USD79.8M, Versus USD76.2M In 2012; 2013 Average Production Up 3% At 4,797bopd
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CityFibre Named Preferred Bidder For Conventry City Fibre Network
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COMPANIES - OTHER
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Matomy Media Group Ltd became the first initial public offering to be pulled in London in 2014, but the recovery in the market for new issues continued as two more companies started trading on AIM for the first time. In a statement, Matomy Media said it had got enough demand from investors to cover the IPO size it had set, but hadn't been able to meet UK listing rules that require 25% of shares in issue to be held by investors within the European Economic Area.
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Friday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

No Events Scheduled
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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