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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Monday.
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COMPANIES
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The UK government has sold off a further 1% stake in Lloyds Banking Group under a trading plan managed by Morgan Stanley, meaning the UK taxpayer now owns 22.98% of the bank's equity. News that the government's stake has been further whittled down comes just over one week since Lloyds resumed dividend payments for the first time since receiving state aid in the financial crisis of 2007-09.
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Media buying giant WPP raised its total dividend by 12% and forecast a year of growth in 2015 similar to 2014, as it met expectations for headline profit before interest and tax, and earnings per share for 2014. WPP posted a headline profit before interest and tax of GBP1.68 billion for 2014, up from GBP1.66 billion in 2013, and in line with analyst expectations provided by the company of GBP1.67 billion. It reported pretax profit of GBP1.45 billion, up from GBP1.30 billion a year before, on revenue of GBP11.53 billion, up 4.6% from GBP11.02 billion. Revenue was held back by the strength of sterling, and on a constant currency basis was up 11.3%, WPP said. The company proposed a final dividend of 26.58 pence, taking its total dividend to 38.20 pence, up 12% from 34.21 pence a year before.
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Vodafone Group said its M-Pesa mobile money transfer and payment service has launched its first international money transfer corridor between Tanzania and Kenya. M-Pesa customers in these countries can now use their mobile phones for money transfers between countries via a combined network of 180,000 agents. Vodafone claims its service is cheaper than existing services.
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Antofagasta said copper production at its Los Pelambres Mine in Chile has so far been reduced by about 5,000 tonnes due to ongoing protests that are causing limited disruption at the site. The miner said that a small group of protesters from the the local Choapa valley community established intermittent blockades at several points on the access road to the Los Pelambres mine late last month and have been there since. There has been damage to the office and minor equipment at the mine entrance and some facilities outside the mine limits have also been damaged.
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GlaxoSmithKline has fired more than 100 staff in China as a result of the internal investigation the drugmaker carried out into the corruption scandal in the country which last year resulted in it being hit with a GBP300 million fine, the Financial Times reported on Friday. The move is the biggest round of dismissals Glaxo has carried out in China since it was found guilty in September of bribing doctors to prescribe its medicines, the paper said.
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Hansteen Holdings said its pretax profit doubled in 2014, as it sold properties into the buoyant UK property investment market, and it raised its dividend and announced a special dividend as it also gave a positive outlook. The property investor reported a pretax profit of GBP131.2 million for 2014, up from GBP65.3 million, buoyed by the gains on property sales. Hansteen said it will pay a full-year dividend of 5.0 pence, up from 4.8p in 2013, reflecting the increased earnings, and will also pay a special dividend of 3.0p reflecting the profits it made on its property disposals.
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Telecity Group said it now has a definitive agreement on its proposed all-share takeover of European data centre services provider Interxion Holding. The British company had announced February 11 that it had agreed a deal to buy New York Stock Exchange-listed Interxion, with Interxion shareholders receiving 2.3386 new Telecity shares per Interxion share. Telecity shareholders will own around 55% of the combined group
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Balfour Beatty said it has been appointed as civil contractor to the Thames Estuary Asset Management Programme, a deal that it thinks will be worth up to GBP250 million to the company. The programme is about flood risk, and involves improving flood defences along the Thames Estuary. It is a GBP300 million programme in total.
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MARKETS
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UK shares trade lower as investors continue to entertain the potential for a summer rate hike by the US Federal Reserve and as focus shifts to Monday's Eurogroup meeting on Greece.
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FTSE 100: down 0.6% at 6,871.37
FTSE 250: down 0.5% at 17,193.37
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.1% at 717.59
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.5119
EUR-USD: up at USD1.0894

GOLD: up at USD1174.52 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD59.38 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Greece must present further reform proposals under the terms of its bailout, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said, hours before his group of eurozone finance ministers was to resume talks about the cash-strapped country. Athens and its creditors agreed 10 days ago to prolong the European portion of the Greek rescue package, following fraught negotiations with the new government of leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. The country has hinted that it may face difficulties meeting major debt repayments this summer. But it cannot access the EUR7.2 billion remaining in its bailout package until it agrees reforms with its creditors - the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
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A EUR1.1 trillion stimulus plan courtesy of the European Central Bank is set to be unleashed upon financial markets Monday, aimed at warding off the threat of deflation and building on the eurozone's newfound economic momentum. The ECB's plans to spend EUR60 billion a month on buying state and private sector assets - part of a landmark quantitative easing scheme - has already led to solid gains in European stocks. It has also pushed government bond yields in parts of the eurozone into negative territory, which should, in theory, promote investment.
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Eurozone investor confidence reached its highest level since August 2007, survey data from the think tank Sentix showed. The investor confidence index for March rose to 18.6 from 12.4 in February. This was the highest score since August 2007. Both current assessment and expectations strengthened strongly in March. The current situation index came in at 6.5, the highest since May 2014.
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Germany's exports declined at the fastest pace since August although a weaker euro is likely to boost shipments in months ahead. Exports dropped by a worse-than-expected 2.1% month-on-month in January, reversing December's revised 2.8% increase, data from Destatis revealed Monday. It was severe than a 1.5% fall forecast by economists. Imports fell 0.3% from December, confounding expectations for a 0.5% rise. In December, imports had decreased 0.7%. As a result, the trade surplus fell to a seasonally adjusted EUR 19.7 billion from EUR 21.6 billion in the prior month.
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The growth in the Irish construction sector eased sharply in February to reach its weakest in a year-and-a-half, as activity and new orders growth weakened, survey data from Markit Economics showed. The Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 52.0 in February from 57.1 in the previous month. However any reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector.
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China's trade surplus rose to a record high in February as exports surged due to the effect of the timing of the Lunar New Year, figures from the customs office showed. The trade surplus came in at USD60.6 billion in February, much more than the USD6 billion expected by economists. This was larger than the record high surplus of USD60 billion recorded in January and marked a new high. Exports rose sharply by 48.3% year-over-year in February, more than the 14% rise expected by economists. Imports plunged 20.5%, much faster than the 10% drop forecast by economists.
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Japan's gross domestic product expanded just 1.5% on year in the fourth quarter of 2014, the Cabinet Office said in a revised reading. That was well shy of forecasts for 2.2%, which would have been unchanged from the February 15 preliminary reading. GDP contracted 2.3% in the previous three months.
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A suspect in the killing of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov has confessed to the February 27 murder, according to Russian news agencies quoting Moscow judge Natalya Mushnikova. The man, identified as Saur Dadayev, stands accused of organizing and carrying out the shooting, which happened on a bridge near the Kremlin. Four others arrested in relation to the crime have denied responsibility. The five men were arrested in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, according to reports on Saturday. Ingushetia is one of the country's heavily Islamic republics in the Caucasus.
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The EU should have its own army, the leader of the bloc's executive said in an interview, reviving the long-debated idea amid fresh tensions with Russia. "Such an army would help us to shape a common foreign and security policy and to seize together Europe's responsibility in the world," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker was quoted as saying by the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
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