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LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares have opened higher Thursday following strong results reported by US technology bellwethers Apple and Facebook overnight.

A number of major UK companies also reported early Thursday, but with a less positive tone.

Unilever reported another drop in revenues in the first quarter, as currency movements and weakness in emerging markets continued to weigh on its performance.

AstraZeneca maintained its full-year guidance for 2014, as it saw pretax profit drop in the first quarter to end-March.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.5% at 6,704.82
FTSE 250: up 0.7% at 16,096.50
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 827.92
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Hang Seng: up 0.3% at 22,570.92
Nikkei 225: closed down 1.0% at 14,404.99
DJIA: closed down 0.1% at 16,501.65
S&P 500: closed down 0.2% at 1,875.39
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.6800
EUR-USD: up at USD1.3829

GOLD: up at USD1,285.10 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD109.33 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 British Summer Time)

09:00 Germany IFO
10:00 Italy Trade Balance non-EU
11:00 UK CBI Distributive Trades Survey - Realized (MoM)
11:00 EU ECB President Draghi's Speech
13:30 US Durable Goods Orders
13:30 US Jobless Claims
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage change
16:00 US Kansas Fed manufacturing activity
18:00 US 7-Year Note Auction
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British car production posted a double-digit growth in March, underpinned by robust demand from Europe, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said. Car manufacturing advanced 12% in March from last year to more than 142,000 units. Production for exports climbed by around 10%, the society said.
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France's business confidence dropped slightly in April, reversing a modest improvement in the previous month, the latest data from INSEE showed. A separate survey from INSEE suggested that manufacturers expect a slowdown in foreign demand and see the labor market situation to remain unfavourable in coming months. The business confidence index for the manufacturing industry eased to 100 from an upwardly revised 101 in March. Economists had forecast the score the remained unchanged at March's original level of 100.
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China's leading economic index was up 1.2% on month in March, the Conference Board said. That's up from the 0.9% increase in February and the 0.3% gain in January. The coincident index added 1.1% in March - up from the flat reading in February and the 1.3% decline in January.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Wednesday that Moscow would retaliate strongly if its "interests" in Ukraine are attacked. He also criticized the Ukrainian administration for relaunching its so-called anti-terrorist operation in the east of the country a day earlier.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to convene his security cabinet on Thursday to discuss Israel's response to the decision by rival Palestinian movements Hamas and Fatah to form a unity government. Hamas, the radical Islamist group ruling Gaza, does not recognize Israel's right to exist.
The unity pact announced Wednesday comes as floundering US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas of the West Bank's Fatah party, are set to expire on April 29.
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Visiting US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were to hold a summit meeting Thursday, when they were expected to discuss regional issues, including North Korea's nuclear threat and China's military buildup. Obama, one of whose strategic initiatives is much-heralded "pivot to Asia," and Abe will reaffirm that the two countries will play a "leading role" in ensuring peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region in a joint statement to be issued after the meeting, Japanese media reported.
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The death toll in the South Korean ferry sinking reached 159 early Thursday, the Yonhap News Agency reported. Another 143 people were still unaccounted for, the report said. One hundred and seventy-four people of the 476 on board when the ferry sank on April 16 survived.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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HSBC CUTS HAMMERSON TO 'NEUTRAL' ('OVERWEIGHT') - TARGET 630 (600) PENCE
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HSBC CUTS RANDGOLD TO 'NEUTRAL' ('OVERWEIGHT') - TARGET 8140 (8110) PENCE
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TRADERS: GOLDMAN RAISES ST JAMES'S PLACE TO 'CONVICTION BUY LIST'
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HSBC RAISES AFRICAN BARRICK GOLD TO 'OVERWEIGHT' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 310 PENCE
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HSBC RAISES JUPITER FUND TO 'OVERWEIGHT' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 440 (400) PENCE
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HSBC CUTS HOCHSCHILD MINING TO 'NEUTRAL' ('OVERWEIGHT') - TARGET 170 PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever PLC reported another drop in revenues in the first quarter, as currency movements and weakness in emerging markets continued to weigh on its performance. Unilever, the maker of consumer products including Dove soaps and Ben & Jerry's ice cream, managed to report growth in sales and volumes helped by price increases, innovation and slight improvements in its food and refreshments businesses. However it said it faced slowing markets and a tough competitive environment in the first quarter. The group raised its quarterly dividend by 6% to EUR0.285.
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AstraZeneca PLC maintained its full-year guidance for 2014, as it saw pretax profit drop in the first quarter to end-March, hit by write downs on the sale of its Alderley Park site and its acquisition of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's share of their diabetes alliance. The pharmaceutical giant posted a pretax profit of GBP638 million, down from GBP1.30 billion in the previous year, as revenue rose to GBP6.42 billion from GBP6.39 billion, damped partly by the weakening of the Japanese Yen against the US Dollar. At constant exchange rates, revenue rose 3%. AstraZeneca made no comment in its statement Thursday on the reported takeover approach by the US's Pfizer Inc.
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Lloyds Banking Group PLC said it has appointed Nick Prettejohn as the chairman of Scottish Widows Group Ltd, meaning Lord Blackwell, who succeeded Win Bischoff as group chairman earlier in April, can concentrate on his new group role.
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Anglo American PLC said production has increased across its major operations in its first quarter, with the exception of platinum production, which fell due to strike action in South Africa, leading the company to revise down its 2014 platinum production guidance.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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African Barrick Gold PLC said its gold production increased in its first quarter, and it has begun a major operation to further increase production, but pretax profit and revenue fell due to the decline in gold prices during the past year. The FTSE 250-listed East Africa-focused gold production company, 63.9% owned by major Canadian company Barrick Gold Corp, said its pretax profit during the three months ended March 31 fell 31% to USD31.3 million from USD45.5 million the previous year.
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Meanwhile, Barrick Gold has sent an email to Newmont Mining Corp outlining revised terms for a merger between the two major gold miners which stalled last week, The Wall Street Journal reported. The newspaper cited people familiar with the matter and said that Canada's Barrick has yet to receive a response from its US rival to the email, which was sent on Tuesday.
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Henderson Group PLC said assets under management increased by GBP4.0 billion to GBP79.2 billion over the course of the first-quarter, driven by GBP2.99 billion in net inflows. In a statement for the three months ended March 31, the asset manager said net inflows were driven by retail client demand in Continental Europe, the UK, North America, Latin America and Asia. Retail net inflows came to about GBP2.88 billion, while institutional flows were GBP113.0 million. While marginally positive, institutional flows were offset by outflows from maturing mandates.
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Cobham PLC said trading for the first quarter has been in line with the board's expectations and it continues to plan for organic revenue to decline by low-to-mid single digits during the course of the year. In an interim management statement for the first three months of 2014, Cobham said that while trading has been in line, translation of the firm's revenue and earnings during the quarter have been hit by foreign currency headwinds, as anticipated in its 2013 results announcement.
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Berendsen Expects To Deliver Year Of Good Progress; Says Profits Down In Quarter In Manage For Value Businesses; Says Operating Margins Up In Core Growth Businesses
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Senior Says Outlook Consistent With Previous Guidance
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Pace Says Q1 Profitability In Line With Expectations; Maintains FY Outlook, Revenues Expected To Be Around USD2.7B Vs USD2.47B
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Computacenter Confident Of Meeting FY Expectations
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COMPANIES - OTHER
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Apple Inc said Wednesday after the markets closed that its second quarter profit rose 7% from last year, as sales surged and margins improved amid strong sales of its iPhones. The company's quarterly earnings per share also came in above analysts' expectations as did its quarterly revenue. The company also said its board of directors has increased its share repurchase authorization to USD90 billion from the USD60 billion level announced last year. Additionally, the company declared an 8% increase to its quarterly dividend to USD3.29 per share. The company said it plans to increase its dividend on an annual basis. Apple also announced a seven-for-one stock split.
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Facebook posted a 72% rise in first-quarter revenue Wednesday as its base of active users continued to grow. The social networking giant said it earned USD642 million in the quarter, up from USD219 million a year earlier. Revenue spiked to USD2.5 billion. The company said that its number of daily active users rose 21% in the quarter to 802 million, including 609 million users who accessed the site on a mobile device. The number of monthly active users increased 15% to 1.28 billion. Mobile advertising revenue represented 59% of total advertising revenue of USD2.27 billion, up from approximately 30% of advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2013.
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Saga Group is adding the final touches to an upcoming initial public offering, the Financial Times reported. Saga, which targets over-50s with insurance, holidays and monthly magazines, is getting ready to file a formal intention to float on the London Stock Exchange as early as next week, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the matter. According to the FT, the listing is expected to give Saga an enterprise value of about GBP3.00 billion.
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Thursday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Elementis
SThree
Croda
Reed Elsevier
African Barrick Gold
Berendsen
Barclays
Anglo American
Pace
Aggreko
AstraZeneca
Cobham
Molins
LSL Property Services
Beale
SpaceandPeople
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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