Vodafone Share News (VOD)

LONDON (Alliance News) - After its brief weekend rally, oil slipped back below USD30 a barrel, taking London equities down with it early Tuesday.

However, gold continued to rally, standing at USD1,116.00 an ounce. Randgold Resources and Fresnillo, both gold miners, were the only two FTSE 100 gainers at the open, up 1.5% and 1.0%, respectively. Oil majors, Royal Dutch Shell and BP were among the biggest blue-chip losers, with Shell A and B shares and BP all down 3% or more.

On a brighter note, brewer and pub chain Marston's was up 4.6% in the FTSE 250 after an upbeat Christmas trading update. The festive cheer lifted peer Enterprise Inns 2.4% as well.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 1.4% at 5,792.44
FTSE 250: down 1.1% at 15,971.69
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.3% at 686.66
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Hang Seng: closed down 2.5% at 18,860.80
Nikkei 225: closed down 2.4% at 16,708.90
DJIA: closed down 1.3% at 15,885.22
S&P 500: closed down 1.6% at 1,877.08
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GBP: soft at USD1.4214 (USD1.4255)
EUR: firm at USD1.0858 (USD1.0827)

GOLD: up at USD1,116.00 per ounce (USD1,107.65)
OIL (Brent): down at USD29.62 a barrel (USD30.72)

(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Tuesday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in GMT)

10:45 UK BOE Governor Carney speech
13:55 US Redbook index
14:00 US S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price indices
14:00 US Housing Price Index
14:45 US Markit Services and Composite PMI Preliminary
15:00 US Consumer Confidence
15:00 US Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index
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Producer prices in Japan were up 0.4% on year in December, the Bank of Japan said. That exceeded forecasts for an increase of 0.2%, which would have been unchanged from the November reading. For all of 2015, producer prices were up 1.2% on year.
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EU ministers paved the way for national border controls to be in effect longer than the six months currently allowed, arguing that efforts to control the continent's migration surge are having little effect. More than 1 million migrants and refugees reached Europe last year, straining local resources and creating tensions between European countries. EU interior ministers met in Amsterdam on Monday to discuss their response to the refugee crisis, most notably when it comes to border controls. Greece has come under particular fire for letting people move through its territory largely unchecked, even though it is supposed to police its border with Turkey, one of Schengen's external frontiers. Some member states have gone so far as to suggest that Greece could be excluded from Schengen.
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Negotiating a ceasefire will be the top priority if the United Nations manages to start Syria peace talks on Friday in Geneva, according to UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura. De Mistura made the comments Monday, the day the talks were originally supposed to start. They have been delayed by disagreements among global and regional powers about whom to invite from among the various opposition groups.
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Canada's newly elected Liberal government ended three months of suspense by announcing that it will formally sign the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal at a meeting in New Zealand next week. But Canada's International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland warned that her signature on the treaty alongside the other 11 Pacific Rim countries, including the US and Japan, does not mean it will ultimately be adopted by the Canadian parliament.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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JEFFERIES RAISES VODAFONE TO 'BUY' ('HOLD') - PRICE TARGET 250 (230) PENCE
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UBS RAISES RBS TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 350 (363) PENCE
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EXANE BNP CUTS GKN TO 'UNDERPERFORM' ('OUTPERFORM') - TARGET 225 (330) PENCE
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GOLDMAN CUTS QINETIQ TO 'SELL' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 192 (208) PENCE
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UBS RAISES HOCHSCHILD MINING TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 80 PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Dixons Carphone said it expects pretax profit for its full financial year to be slightly ahead of consensus after achieving growth in line-for-like revenue over the key Christmas trading period. The electronics retailer said group like-for-like sales at constant currency rose 5% in the 10 weeks to January 9, with a record Black Friday in late November. Dixons said it now expects group headline pretax profit for the full year to May to be within the range of GBP440 million and GBP450 million, which is slightly ahead of consensus. Dixons added that the Sprint store trial in the US was successful and that it has signed an agreement with Sprint to fully activate the joint venture for a targeted 500 stores.
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easyJet reported growth in passengers carried and load factor in the first quarter of its financial year, although revenue per seat and ultimately total revenue fell following the terrorist attacks in Egypt and Paris. The low-cost airline said the number of passengers carried in the quarter ended December 31 increased by 8.1% to 16.1 million, as the load factor rose by 0.6 percentage point to 90.3%.
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Singapore-based conglomerate Fraser & Neave said it has expressed an interest in acquiring the Peroni and Grolsch lager brands set to be sold as part of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV's acquisition of rival brewer SABMiller. The two lager brands are being sold by AB InBev, the maker of Budweiser, in order to address competition concerns about its merger with SABMiller in Europe. Fraser & Neave operates food & drink and publishing businesses in Asia and formerly owned Asia Pacific Breweries, which it sold to Dutch brewer Heineken in 2012.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Consumer products company PZ Cussons said pretax profit edged slightly higher in the first half despite a dip in revenue, as it dealt with a drag on its results from a tough trading environment in Nigeria and a hit from currency weakness in Asia and Africa. The company, which makes Imperial Leather and Carex amongst a range of personal care, homecare, food and electricals products, said its pretax profit for the six months to the end of November rose to GBP40.0 million from GBP39.7 million. The group will pay a flat interim dividend of 2.61 pence per share.
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Card Factory said it had continued to trade in line with the board's expectations, as a strong performance in like-for-like sales of non-card products drove up the card retailer's revenue in 2015.
Card Factory said it had seen a 8.1% total sales growth in the 11 months ended December 2015, attributing this rise to a 2.8% like-for-like store sales growth, which was particularly strong in non-card products and continued over the Christmas period.
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Greencore Group said it is confident of meeting market expectations after a "good start" to its financial year. In an update for the 13 weeks to December 25, which is the convenience food company's first quarter, Greencore said it recorded GBP356.0 million of revenue in that period, up 7.2% on the prior year on a reported basis and of 6.8% at constant currency.
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Pub operator and brewer Marston's said its trading has been encouraging thus far in its current financial year, with a solid Christmas and New Year period. The company's Destination and Premium restaurant outlets saw like-for-like sales grow 3.0% over the 16 weeks to January 23, with food sales up 2.5% and drink sales rising 3.4%. For the two-weeks Christmas trading period to January 2, trading was good for the group, with like-for-like sales growth overall hitting 4.9%, despite tough comparatives for the year before.
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Crest Nicholson Holdings said pretax profit rose, revenue increased and it will pay a higher dividend following a robust year for the UK housebuilding industry. The housebuilder said pretax profit for the year to the end of November was GBP154.0 million, up 32% year-on-year from GBP116.7 million. Total sales revenue for the year rose to GBP804.8 million from GBP636.3 million, as the group sold 2,725 homes, up from 2,530, at an average selling price of GBP318,000, 14% higher than the GBP278,000 average at which it sold homes in the previous financial year. The group will pay a total dividend for the year of 19.7p, up 38%.
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The Restaurant Group said it has appointed Debbie Hewitt as its non-executive chairman, effective from after its annual general meeting in May. Hewitt will take over the chairmanship of the restaurant operator, which runs the Frankie & Benny's and Chiquito chains, from Alan Jackson, who will retire after 15 years with the company. Hewitt joined as a non-executive director in May last year and is currently the chairman of formalwear retailer Moss Bros Group.
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Property advisor Savills said Nick Ferguson will become its chairman after its annual general meeting in May. He will take over from Peter Smith, who will retire after the meeting. Ferguson is currently the chairman of Sky, the pay-TV broadcaster, and was a co-founder of Schroder Ventures, the private equity firm which later became Permira.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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French telecommunications group Iliad is exploring a move into the UK's mobile market amid the planned merger of O2 and Three, the Financial Times reported. Xavier Niel, the billionaire owner of Iliad, is understood to have approached Ofcom, the UK's media and communications regulator, to express a "preliminary" interest in entering the UK market.
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Koninklijke Philips Electronics reported a loss for the fourth-quarter 2015, compared to net income in the previous year. The latest-quarter result was impacted by pension de-risking settlement costs, and higher financial expenses and income tax charges. For 2016, the company continues to expect modest comparable sales growth and said it will build on its 2015 operational performance improvement. Taking into account ongoing macro-economic headwinds and the phasing of costs and sales, it expects improvements in the year to be back-end loaded.
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German conglomerate Siemens reported that its first-quarter net income climbed 42% to EUR1.56 billion from last year's EUR1.10 billion. Revenue increased 8% to EUR18.89 billion from EUR17.42 billion last year. Major contract wins in Europe and Africa drove first-quarter orders up 27% year-over-year, at EUR22.8 billion. Excluding currency translation effects, orders were 22% higher and revenue was up 4%.
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Ford Motor will close down all operations by the end of this year in Japan and Indonesia, saying that there is no path to sustained profitability, nor will there be an acceptable return over time from its investments in Japan or Indonesia. General Motors last year closed down its factory in Indonesia, the largest car market in Southeast Asia. Industrywide sales in both Indonesia and Japan slumped in each of the last two years. While Indonesia is the largest economy in Southeast Asia, Toyota Motor and its affiliate Daihatsu Motor dominate, accounting for about half of all vehicles sold.
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JP Morgan Chase agreed to pay Lehman Brothers Holdings USD1.42 billion in cash to settle much of the failed investment bank's lawsuit that accused JP Morgan of illegally siphoning billions of dollars from Lehman before its collapse. The settlement comes after a federal judge last fall ruled for JP Morgan, saying the bank didn't abuse its leverage as Lehman's primary clearing bank to force the investment bank to hand over more collateral in the weeks before its September 2008 collapse. The deal resolves the bulk of Lehman's USD8.6 billion lawsuit against JP Morgan and the bank's counterclaims against Lehman.
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Sprint will cut 2,500 jobs, or about 7% of its total workforce, and close several call centers as part of a plan to cut USD2.5 billion in costs, according to reports citing person familiar with the matter. Most of the job cuts are coming from the closing call centers. Employees were informed of the cuts in an e-mail on Friday.
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Tuesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Arcontech Group
Redefine International
Servoca
European Investment Trust
Greencore Group
Infrastrata
Avon Rubber
Marston's
Crimson Tide (re capital restructuring to allow dividends)
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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