Venture Life Share News (VLG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Weir Group leads blue-chip fallers amid a soft open in London on Wednesday, with Greek debt negotiations and bond-market volatility sapping buying appetite.

Weir said it expects its full-year revenue, margins and profit to be weighted more towards the second half than in previous years. Chief Executive Keith Cochrane said the second quarter is proving to be "very challenging" for the engineering group's oil and gas division, with the US rig count continuing to decline, though at a slower rate over the past month. The stock is down 2.6%.

Shares in Standard Chartered bank lead FTSE 100 risers, up 3.1%, amid hopes that UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne will set out plans to phase out the current GBP3.5 billion bank levy when he delivers his annual Mansion House speech on Wednesday evening. With relatively few domestic operations, Standard Chartered would benefit from a levy based solely on UK business.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
----------
MARKETS
----------
FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 6,746.11
FTSE 250: down 0.1% at 17,829.51
AIM ALL-SHARE: flat at 772.25
----------
Hang Seng: down 0.7% at 26,799.11
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.3% at 20,046.36
DJIA: closed flat at 17,764.04
S&P 500: closed flat at 2,080.15
----------
GBP: up at USD1.5421
EUR: up at USD1.1334

GOLD: up at USD1,184.33 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD65.57 a barrel

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

09:00 Italy Industrial Output
09:30 UK Industrial and Manufacturing Production
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
15:00 US Business Inventories
15:00 UK NIESR GDP Estimate
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks
19:00 US Monthly Budget Statement
----------
European officials appeared unconvinced by a new set of reform proposals out of Greece, amid growing fears that the country could fail to win access to bailout funds it needs to avert bankruptcy. "I hear a lot of optimism from the Greeks, but that is an underestimation of the complexity of what is expected of them," the president of the Eurogroup panel of eurozone finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said in a Dutch television interview. Athens and its creditors have struggled for months to agree on reforms that would unblock EUR7.2 billion left under an existing bailout. The Greek government on Tuesday delivered to Brussels officials two new documents on its fiscal targets and on how to cover its funding gap. The proposals are aimed at "closing the fiscal gap with alternative proposals and identifying a possible plan of sustainability of the Greek debt," a government statement said Tuesday.
----------
The EU's legislature postponed a planned vote on a mammoth free trade deal being negotiated with the US, amid disagreement over a controversial mechanism to settle trade disputes. If approved, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (would create the world's largest free trade zone and could help boost the EU economy. But the deal has been bogged down by concerns that it could allow corporations to challenge national laws.
----------
French industrial and manufacturing output declined unexpectedly in April, the statistical office Insee revealed. Industrial output dropped 0.9% from March when it remained flat. This was the first decline in five months. Economists had forecast production to grow 0.4%.
----------
Producer prices in Japan were up 0.3% on month in May, the Bank of Japan said. That beat forecasts for an increase of 0.2% following the 0.1% gain in April. On a yearly basis, producer prices were unchanged at -2.1% versus forecasts for a decline of 2.2%.
----------
Core machine orders in Japan jumped 3.8% on month in April, the Cabinet Office said - worth JPY902.5 billion. The headline figure beat forecasts for a decline of 1.8% following the 2.9% gain in March. On a yearly basis, core machine orders added 3.0% - also topping expectations for a decline of 1.4% following the 2.6% gain in the previous month. Upon the release of the data, the Cabinet Office raised its assessment of core machine orders, saying that they are recovering.
----------
Two US senators introduced legislation that would formally authorize the use of military force against the Islamic State militant group. The measure provides Congress with an opportunity to approve the military mission in Iraq and Syria, which the US military has been waging since last year under legislation approved by Congress to fight the earlier wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. US President Barack Obama this year asked Congress to vote on a so-called authorization for use of military force, but lawmakers have yet to act.
----------
BROKER RATING CHANGES
---------
TRADERS: CITIGROUP CUTS TAYLOR WIMPEY TO 'SELL' ('NEUTRAL')
----------
TRADERS: CITIGROUP RAISES CAIRN ENERGY TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL')
----------
JPMORGAN RESUMES ULTRA ELECTRONICS WITH 'NEUTRAL' - TARGET 1,965 PENCE
----------
COMPANIES - FTSE 100
----------
UK Chancellor George Osborne is expected to set out plans to phase out the GBP3.5 billion bank levy when he delivers his annual Mansion House speech on Wednesday evening, The Times reported.  According to the report, the UK's economic and finance ministry is expected to replace the bank levy with a new corporation tax surcharge. Unlike the bank levy, which is imposed on global balance sheets, the new tax would apply only to banks' assets in the UK. The bank levy has been a frustration for banks such as HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered, both of which conduct the bulk of their business outside the UK. The report in The Times said that Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland Group could contribute a greater share under the new tax plans. Osborne's speech will also include further details of his plans for returning ownership of RBS to the private sector.
----------
Deutsche Bank, Barclays Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland Group were among a handful of European banks downgraded on Tuesday by Standard & Poor's, amid concern that state support in a crisis is now 'uncertain', the FT reported. Analysts with the rating agency warned that it was unclear what support even systematically important financial institutions in the UK and Germany would receive, following the recent implementation of the European Union's Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive, the newspaper said. S&P lowered the counterparty credit rating of Barclays Bank one notch to 'A-', with Deutsche Bank and RBS cut to 'BBB+' from 'A' and 'A-', respectively. RBS confirmed the downgrade in a statement.
----------
J Sainsbury reported a drop in retail sales in the first quarter of its financial year as it continues to be hit by food-price deflation amid a highly competitive UK grocery market. Sainsbury's said that total retail sales in the 12 weeks to June 6 were down 0.6% excluding fuel, or 2.3% including fuel on the same period the year before, while like-for-like retail revenue was down 2.1% excluding fuel, or 3.7% including fuel. However, Chief Executive Mike Coupe said that he is "encouraged by some of the early trends that we are seeing in our key trading and operational metrics", as volume and transactions continue to grow. The stock is up 2.5% at the open Wednesday.
----------
COMPANIES - FTSE 250
----------
FirstGroup reported higher profit for its last financial year as its improvement plan delivered higher margins in its US First Student and UK bus operations, and while it expects its plan to drive further improvements in most businesses in the current year it is also facing a hit to its UK rail unit after it lost two key franchises. The company pledged early last year that it would turnaround its underperforming businesses, after rebuffing demands by activist shareholder Sandell Asset Management to break itself up by spinning off its US operations. It reported a pretax profit of GBP105.8 million for the year to end-March, up from GBP58.5 million a year earlier, while the closely-watched figure excluding amortisation charges and some other items rose to GBP163.9 million, from GBP111.9 million, meeting analysts' expectations for a figure of around GBP160.0 million.
----------
SOCO International is considering the options at hand for its African portfolio, including rationalisation and farm-out of all or part of its asset base in the region, as the oil and gas exploration and production company maintained production guidance for 2015. In an update ahead of SOCO International's annual meeting of shareholders at 1000 BST, Chief Executive Ed Story said that more stable Brent crude oil prices, in the USD60 to USD65 range, mean the company can evaluate the "economic attractiveness" of significant investments in future projects.
----------
COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
----------
Online fashion retailer boohoo.com reported a rise in revenue in the first quarter of its financial year, boosted by marketing campaigns and by price and customer investments, and said its profit expectations for the full year remain unchanged. Boohoo.com said that total revenue in the three months to May 31 was up 35% on the same period the year before to GBP41.3 million, with UK sales up 27%, the rest of Europe up 27% and sales in the rest of the world growing 66%. The retailer said total revenue would have increased by 37% if exchange rates had remained constant. On a constant currency basis, sales in the rest of Europe grew by 45%, and revenue in the rest of the world by 70%.
----------
Shoe Zone reported a drop in profit in the first half of its financial year, after sales declined as it closed unprofitable stores and suffered weak trading conditions towards the end of the period. The value footwear retailer reported a drop in pretax profit in the six months to April 4 to GBP2.0 million from GBP2.7 million a year before, as revenue fell 5.7% to GBP78.2 million from GBP82.9 million following the closure of nine loss-making stores and as warm weather conditions slowed autumn/winter trading towards the end of the first half. Shoe Zone will pay an interim dividend of 3.2 pence, having not paid a dividend in the first quarter of the previous year.
----------
Dialight warned that its 2015 underlying operating profit will be significantly below expectations and its results for the first half of the year will be below the previous year, after it was hit by a slowdown in orders in its lighting business in both the US and Europe that's likely to mean revenue is below hopes. New Chief Executive Michael Sutsko is to lead a strategic review of the business in light of the slowdown, the company said, focusing on its markets, operations, supply chain and product development.
----------
1pm said it expects pretax profit for its recently completed financial year to be significantly ahead of market expectations, with revenue slightly ahead, due to strong demand for finance from small- and medium-sized enterprises and lower costs from bad debts. 1pm, which provides finance to SMEs, issued the trading update ahead of reporting results for the year ended May 31, which are to be published in the second part of July.
----------
COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
----------
General Electric announced plans to sell its US sponsor finance business unit and a USD3 billion bank loan portfolio to a Canadian pension plan in an estimated USD12 billion transaction. The sale of the business unit, which offers financing for private equity firms, should be completed by the third quarter, GE said. The sponsor finance business is principally made up of Antares Capital. According to a GE statement, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will retain the Antares Capital brand and management team. The sale follows GE's announcement in April of plans to refocus on its industrial holdings and shed most GE Capital units within two years.
----------
The US Department of Justice announced that two banks, Société Générale Private Banking (Suisse) or SGPB-Suisse and Berner Kantonalbank or BEKB, have reached resolutions under the department's Swiss Bank Program. Société Générale Private Banking will pay a USD17.807 million penalty and Berner Kantonalbank will pay a USD4.619 million penalty. The Swiss Bank Program, which was announced in August 2013, provides a path for Swiss banks to resolve potential criminal liabilities in the US.
----------
Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Hurricane Energy
InternetQ
Patagonia Gold
CDialogues
Falkland Oil & Gas
M&C Saachi
Densitron Technologies
Eden Research
Global Energy Developments
Orogen Gold
Sopheon
IQE
Share
SOCO International
Venture Life Group
Witan Pacific Investment Trust
----------
By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.