TREE.L Share News (TREE)

LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares Thursday have rebounded as expected from Wednesday's global market losses, with only drug firm Shire standing out as a blue-chip loser.

Shire, whose shares lost 22% on Wednesday, is down another 11% at the open Thursday, after the board of US suitor AbbVie recommended its shareholders vote against the takeover of the Irish company.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 1.0% at 6,274.98
FTSE 250: up 1.1% at 14,587.92
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 682.59
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Hang Seng: down 0.6% at 22,995.14
Nikkei 225: closed down 2.2% at 14,738.38
DJIA: closed down 1.1% at 16,141.74
S&P 500: closed 0.8% at 1,862.49
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GBP-USD: down at USD1.5984
EUR-USD: down at USD1.2789

GOLD: down at USD1,238.96 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD83.31 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 Italy Trade Balance
10:00 EU Trade Balance
10:00 EU Consumer Price Index
13:00 US Philadelphia Fed's Plosser speech
13:30 US Jobless Claims
13:30 Canada Manufacturing Shipments
14:00 US Fed's Lockhart speech
14:15 US Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization
15:00 US Fed Minneapolis's Narayana Kocherlakota speech
15:00 US NAHB Housing Market Index
15:00 US Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage
16:00 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks
18:00 US Fed's Bullard speech
21:00 US Net TIC Flows
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Chinese bank lending increased more than expected and money supply growth accelerated in September, but the nation's foreign reserves declined in the third quarter, data published by the People's Bank of China showed. Banks lent CNY857.2 billion in September, up from CNY702.5 billion in August. It was also larger than a CNY750 billion lending expected by economists.
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Hong Kong police arrested two demonstrators early Thursday, authorities said, as the numbers of pro-democracy protests on the streets fell. A 38-year old man was detained after throwing a bottle against a car, while a mob tried to hinder his arrest, police said. A 24-year old was also seized for obstructing police officers. But streets were relatively calm in the morning after hundreds rallied outside police and government headquarters late Wednesday amid allegations of excessive police force.
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The second Texas health care worker infected with Ebola flew on a commercial flight the day before she reported symptoms, touching off a new wave of worry in the US Wednesday over the possible spread of the virus. US health officials said the nurse should not have been allowed to fly. Though they said the risk to the 132 passengers also on the flight was "extremely low," authorities were attempting to contact them. The nurse, who helped treat an Ebola-infected patient who died last week in Texas, flew Monday from Cleveland to Dallas and arrived at hospital the next day with fever, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
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Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Wednesday he was hoping to jump-start his country's moribund economy with a stimulus package worth EUR36 billion despite warnings it may fall foul of eurozone austerity rules. The budget law for 2015 was approved in a 90-minute cabinet meeting that convened at around 8 pm, five hours later than planned as it went through customary last-minute changes. The package was originally expected to be worth EUR30 billion.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko in Milan on Friday, the Italian government said in a statement. The meeting was announced Wednesday, on the eve of a two-day Europe-Asia summit (ASEM) in Italy's industrial capital to which both Putin and Poroshenko had been invited. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President would also attend, the Rome government said.
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The possibility of extending talks about Iran's nuclear programme beyond a November deadline entered into view Wednesday as US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held long negotiations in Vienna. Kerry, Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met to tackle the remaining disagreements on a deal that would end the stand-off over Iran's controversial nuclear programme. The three leaders were set to brief senior diplomats from all six world powers involved in the negotiations on Thursday in Vienna.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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TRADERS: MERRILL LYNCH ADDS ASTRAZENECA TO 'EUROPE 1 LIST'
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BARCLAYS RAISES SHIRE PRICE TARGET TO 4100 (3900) PENCE - 'OVERWEIGHT'
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UBS RAISES ANTOFAGASTA TO 'NEUTRAL' ('SELL') - TARGET 710 PENCE
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TRADERS: NUMIS RAISES WHITBREAD TO 'ADD' ('HOLD')
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Numis Upgrades Bank Of Georgia To Buy From Hold, PT 2,708p
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UBS REMOVES FERREXPO FROM 'LEAST PREFERRED LIST' - 'SELL'; CUTS PRICE TARGET TO 80 (100) PENCE
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GOLDMAN CUTS ASOS PRICE TARGET TO 3000 (4300) PENCE - 'BUY'
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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US-based AbbVie late Wednesday said its board of directors withdrew its positive recommendation made on July 18 regarding the proposed takeover of Shire and recommended instead that stockholders vote against the transaction. AbbVie had earlier announced its board's intention to reconsider its USD54.7 billion offer recommendation for the Irish drug company due to the impact of the US Treasury's move to check tax inversion. Shire's board had urged earlier on Wednesday that AbbVie should proceed with the recommended offer on the agreed terms.
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Meggitt confirmed that one of its subsidiaries has been reaffirmed as the supplier of the next generation virtual small-arms trainer programme for the US Army. Meggitt originally won the contract in June, a USD99 million five-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity Contract from the US Army Program Executive Office for Simulation and Training to provide 1,000-plus new and upgraded systems and simulated weapons for US Army facilities worldwide. The US General Accounting Office has now rejected a protest made by another bidder for the contract, Meggitt said, meaning its Meggitt Training Systems company has been affirmed as the supplier for the programme.
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Bunzl said trading has been in line with expectations since its half-year results were released at the end of August and said it has acquired a new business in the Netherlands. The distribution and outsourcing company said overall trading has been in line in the period since its results in August, with group revenue in the third quarter to September 30 up 6% year-on-year on a constant currency basis. In addition, the group said it will acquired Netherlands-based De Ridder Groep BV, a specialist distribution business focusing on the prisons, police stations and detention centres segments, for an undisclosed amount.
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BHP Billiton confirmed that it will seek a London listing for its de-merged company, in addition to the planned primary listing on the Australian Securities Exchange. The mining giant is spinning out a new company containing aluminium, coal, manganese, nickel and silver assets, a move it thinks will unlock shareholder value.
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British Sky Broadcasting Group said it is on track to complete its acquisition of Sky Italia and a majority stake in Sky Deutschland, as it saw pretax profit in its first quarter to end-September boosted by the sale of its stake in ITV PLC. BSkyB posted a pretax profit of GBP664 million, up from GBP245 million a year before, boosted by a GBP429 million profit on the sale of its 6.4% stake in ITV to Liberty Global Inc in July and as revenue rose to GBP1.93 billion from GBP1.84 billion.
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Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff maker Diageo reported a 1.5% decline in organic net sales for the first quarter, hit by a fall in volume, on the back of significantly weaker trading in emerging markets, currency rate movements, and de-stocking issues in some of its key markets. The results were in the middle of market expectations. Analysts were expecting between a 1% to 2% decline in group organic sales for the quarter.
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Packaging and paper company Mondi reported an underlying operating profit of EUR174 million for the third quarter, broadly flat on the year and in line with management expectations, but said it had successfully raised prices for some products which should help support the business going forward. In a statement, the company said its like-for-like sales volumes were broadly in line with the third quarter of 2013.
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First Direct, the online and telephone bank owned by HSBC Holdings, is to pay compensation for selling complex investments without checking if they were appropriate for customers, the Financial Times reports. First Direct is the latest lender to admit offering complex products without having procedures to ensure they were suitable and that investors fully understood what they were getting, breaking financial regulations. The bank also said some information it provided through its share dealing service about certain investments “was unclear” and “could have misled” customers, the FT said.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Man Group said funds under management grew by a quarter during the third quarter, as its acquisition of Numeric and Pine Grove, and USD1.3 billion of net inflows and performance, offset a USD2.9 billion hit from the rise in the US dollar. Sales slowed at its GLG fund, but AHL performed well, leading to a significant new institutional mandate, it said. In a statement, the fund management group said funds under management were USD72.3 billion on September 30, up 25% from USD57.7 billion at the end of June, with US-based Numeric and Pine Grove adding USD16.2 billion of assets.
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Soco International said it has completed drilling on the Lidongo X Marine 101 well as its Marine XI block offshore the Republic Of Congo and said it has encountered oil at the prospect. FTSE 250-listed Soco said its Soco EPC subsidiary, the operator of the Marine XI Block, encountered oil in a clastics sequence in the Djeno sand formation. It said the drilling results and early log interpretation indicate oil at an approximately 50 metre gross interval.
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Balfour Beatty said it has won a USD533 million contract to handle the renovation and expansion of the Texas Medical Center campus in Houston. The project, awarded to Balfour by the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, will include building a 17-storey hospital, implementing a building control system for the campus and ensuring hospital services continue during the construction period, Balfour said.
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Rank Group said trading in the 15 weeks to October 12 was in line with management expectations as it posted a rise in like-for-like and total revenues in the period and said it is on track to meet full year forecasts. The casinos group said like-for-like revenue in the period was up 3% overall, with a 5% rise for its Grosvenor Casinos business and a 1% increase for its Mecca bingo arm.
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Bwin.Party Digital Says Trading In Line With Expectations; Confident On Full Year Outlook
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Booker Group H1 Pretax Profit GBP67.4M, Up From GBP65.1M Year Before; Interim Dividend 0.52p, Up 16%; Says Trading First 4 Weeks Of H2 Ahead Of Last Year
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WH Smith FY Pretax Profit GBP112M, Up 9% From GBP103M Year Before; Total Dividend 35.0p, Up 14% On Year; Sets Additional Share Buyback Of Up To GBP50M
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Rathbone Brothers Says Q3 Funds Under Management Grows To GBP26B
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Evraz reported a fall in production during the third quarter across most of its operations following a variety of maitenance work, with expectations for slight improvements in the fourth quarter. Crude steel production decreased in the third quarter to 3.85 million tonnes compared to 3.91 million tonnes in the second quarter. The decrease was due to maitenance work at its ZSMK mill in Russia, said Evraz.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Nestlé reported sales of SFR66.2 billion francs for the first nine months of 2014, an organic growth of 4.5%, composed of 2.3% real internal growth and 2.2% pricing. The company said its sales were impacted by substantial negative foreign exchange of 7.5%, and divestitures, net of acquisitions, further reduced sales growth by 0.1%. As a result the total evolution of sales was down 3.1%. Nestlé said the company is still aiming for organic growth of around 5% for 2014 with improvements in margins, underlying earnings per share in constant currencies and capital efficiency.
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Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding reported group sales of SFR34.8 billion, up by 5% at constant exchange rates , while remaining stable in Swiss francs for the nine months to September 30. For the nine-month period, both the segments witnessed good sales growth, with Pharmaceuticals up 4% and Diagnostics rising 6%.
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Giant US-based retailer Wal-Mart Stores lowered its sales forecasts Wednesday. The company said sales would be up 2 to 3% in the current fiscal year, down from an earlier forecast of 3- to 5% growth.
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Online video service provider Netflix Wednesday reported a better-than-expected increase in third-quarter profit, led by higher revenue. Nonetheless, Netflix stock sank 26% on some weak guidance and softer-than-expected subscriber additions. Netflix, which has been a strong performer on the stock market, said that recent price increases dampened subscriber additions for the quarter. The company added 3.02 million streaming subscribers in the third quarter, below its forecast of 3.69 million. The company added about 1 million customers in the US and 2 million customers internationally, to end the quarter with 53.1 million members.
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Thursday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Cambium Global Timberland
IG Group Holdings
Rank Group
Renishaw
Aberforth Geared Income Trust
Consort Medical
Pantheon International Participations
Mattioli Woods
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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