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LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks have opened a little higher Friday and the pound is firm, following the release of the latest opinion poll on Scottish independence which showed a small swing back in favour of the "No" campaign just six days before the crucial referendum.

Fresnillo is among the best performing stocks on the FTSE 100 after it signed a binding agreement to buy Newmont Mining Corp's 44% stake in their Penmont joint venture for USD450 million in cash, a deal that gives it full control of the gold mining venture in Mexico.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.2% at 6,810.89
FTSE 250: up 0.04% at 15,627.21
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.03% at 776.30
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Hang Seng: down 0.2% at 24,621.27
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.3% at 15,948.29
DJIA: closed down 0.1% at 17,049
S&P 500: closed up 0.1% at 1,997.45
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GBP-USD: down at USD1.6251
EUR-USD: flat at USD1.2924

GOLD: down at USD1,228.20 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD98.39 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Friday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times British Summer Time)

09:00 Italy Industrial Output
10:00 Italy Consumer Price Index
10:00 EU Employment Change
10:00 EU Industrial Production
13:30 US Import and Export Price Index
13:30 US Retail Sales
14:55 US Reuters/Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index Preliminary
15:00 US Business Inventories
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A new YouGov poll showed voters edging towards voting No in the upcoming Scottish independence referendum. The new survey showed No votes were leading by a margin of 52-48.
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European Central Bank President Mario Draghi urged governments to revive investment that is essential to bring in a sustainable recovery in the bloc. "A decisive rise in investment is essential to bring inflation where we would want to see it, to kick-start the economy and to bring down unemployment," he said at Eurofi Financial Forum in Milan late Thursday. The central banker said the governments should make the regulatory environment more favorable to economic growth and also give companies easy access to diversified source of financing. He also called for government guarantees to support lending to small and medium sized enterprises.
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Austria late Thursday became the third country to report that its gas deliveries from Russia had dropped significantly, after Poland and Slovakia reported similar reductions earlier in the day. Russian energy giant Gazprom gave no reason why supplies were 45% lower to Poland, Polish energy supplier PGNiG said. Russia, embroiled in a dispute with the US and EU over its presence in eastern Ukraine to back separatists, has in the past used its energy resources for political leverage.
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The EU and US Thursday signalled another round of sanctions against Russia, some of which could come into effect as early as Friday. "We will deepen and broaden sanctions in Russia's financial, energy, and defense sectors," US President Barack Obama said. The US said details of the sanctions would be announced on Friday, while the EU was more specific. The new EU sanctions will target five state-owned banks, three major defence companies, oil-exploration projects and 24 individuals, including "Russian decision-makers."
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Chinese bank lending surged in August after declining sharply a month ago, while money supply growth slowed from last year, data published by the People's Bank of China showed Friday. Banks lent CNY 702.5 billion in August, which was much larger than July's CNY 385.2 billion lending. Social aggregate financing, a broad measure of credit, totaled CNY 957.4 billion in August, versus CNY 273.1 billion a month ago. Nonetheless, it remained above the expected level of CNY 1.13 trillion.
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Argentina's National Congress passed a measure to allow the government to repay defaulted bonds through its own bank instead of a New York account, in an attempt to circumvent a US court that blocked renegotiated payments to some investors. After a 15-hour debate on legislation passed last week in the Senate, the lower Chamber of Deputies approved the measure 134-99 on Thursday to deposit payments to bondholders in state-controlled Banco de la Nacion Argentina, instead of Bank of New York Mellon Corp. The measure awaits President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's signature into law.
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Japan's industrial production rose more than initially estimated in July, final data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed Friday. Industrial output climbed 0.4% month-over-month in July, which was faster than the initial estimate of 0.2% rise. On a year-over-year basis, production fell 0.7%. Initially, a 0.9% drop was estimated.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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BARCLAYS RAISES GKN TO 'OVERWEIGHT' ('EQUAL WEIGHT')
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UBS CUTS WHITBREAD TO 'SELL' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 4200 (4450) PENCE
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UBS RAISES SERCO TO 'NEUTRAL' ('SELL') - TARGET 320 (300) PENCE
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PANMURE RAISES HANSARD GLOBAL TO 'BUY' ('HOLD') - TARGET 105 PENCE
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JEFFERIES INITIATES BOOHOO WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 68 PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Fresnillo has a binding agreement to buy Newmont Mining Corp's 44% stake in their Penmont joint venture for USD450 million in cash, a deal that gives it full control of the gold mining venture in Mexico. The London-listed miner said the move will allow it continue an aggressive expansion programme in the region, and will immediately add to its earnings. It will add 2.0 million ounces to Fresnillo's reserve and 5.1 million ounces to its resource base, and it has raised its target of 500,000 ounces of attributable gold production by 2018 to 750,000 ounces as a result.
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The EU has approved British entertainment and communications provider British Sky Broadcasting Group's proposed acquisition of pay-TV companies Sky Deutschland and Sky Italial, saying the deal would not raise competition concerns. In late July, British Sky Broadcasting, known as BskyB, said it agreed to acquire 21st Century Fox's 100% stake in Italian pay-TV provider Sky Italia and its 57.4% interest in German pay-TV company Sky Deutschland in a deal valued at nearly USD9.3 billion.
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The chief executive of Vodafone Group has said the UK telecoms group would consider making a bid for Liberty Global PLC "for the right price", Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Speaking following an investor conference in New York, Vittorio Colao said Vodafone may consider a "transformational" acquisition in the "longer term", Bloomberg said, citing a note from Goldman Sachs analyst Tim Boddy.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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British pub chain JD Wetherspoon has posted strong profit and revenue growth in its last financial year, boosted by new pub openings and impressive sales of its food and beverages, but said investment it's making in the business continue to squeeze its profit margin. The strong growth momentum continued into the new financial year, and as always, the company said it's aiming for a "reasonable outcome" for the year without elaborating. Pretax profit was GBP78.4 million for the 52 weeks ended July 27, up from GBP57.1 million a year earlier, boosted by a 10% rise in revenue to GBP1.41 billion, up from GBP1.28 billion. Like-for-like sales were up 5.5%, and have accelerated to 6.3% in the six weeks to September 7.
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AVEVA Group has warned that it now expects its revenue to be between GBP84 million to GBP90 million in the first half of its current financial year, as results have been hit by the strength of sterling and the timing of key engineering, procurement and construction rental renewals. The engineering data and design IT system provider had previously noted these issues at the time of its first quarter update in July, and on Friday said it expects them to hit first half revenues by about GBP14 million. The company reported revenue of GBP108.5 million in the first half of its last financial year.
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Polymetal International has acquired all of the North Kaluga deposit in the Sverdlovsk region of Russia following the restructuring of the Ural-Polymetal joint venture. Under the terms of the restructuring, the Ural-Polymetal joint venture was dissolved, with the assets and liabilities held by the unit distributed to the joint venture partners. Polymetal, which owned a 49.99% stake in the joint venture, will take a 100% interest in the North Kaluga deposit as part of the restructuring and will assume GBP20 million in debt.
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Great Portland Estates has exchanged contracts on the sale of 125 apartments at the Rathbone Square development in London for GBP207.2 million in total. The sale price for the apartments reflects an average capital value of GBP1,856 per square foot, with the price range from GBP1,548 per square foot and GBP2,624 per square foot, the FTSE 250-listed real estate company said. The 125 apartments sold so far represent 78% of the total private residential property on the site by area and 73% by value.
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Galliford Try and Costain Group have been appointed by Southern Water to help deliver its 2015 - 2020 investment programme. The work is expected to be worth about GBP215 million to Galliford Try and GBP200 million to Costain.

COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Japanese consulting firm Nippon Koei Co Ltd has pulled out of the battle to acquire Hyder Consulting, paving the way for Dutch rival Arcadis NV to complete a GBP296 million takeover of the British firm. Nippon Koei said it will no longer proceed with a potential acquisition of Hyder, after deciding that it wouldn't raise its 680 pence a share cash offer for the firm because it doesn't feel it would be able to add much value at the current recommended takeover offer price.
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Anite has maintained its expectations for the full year, as overall trading in its first quarter was ahead of the previous year thanks to a better performance from its handset testing division. The software and hardware company said that, despite continued tough market conditions, product orders in handset testing were "materially up", leading to stronger revenue. This was driven by high demand in the Asia Pacific region, as well as cost cutting that Anite undertook in the business at the end of the previous year. Its network testing division saw a slower start than the previous year due to weakness in North America and the strength of sterling against the euro. Still, Anite said momentum was picking up in this business, with an "encouraging pipeline of opportunities."
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Online fashion retailer Boohoo.com said revenue growth accelerated in the second quarter of its financial year, boosted by new website launches as the brand continued to expand its international presence. Boohoo.com said it continues to trade in line with expectations for the full year, after revenue in the six months to end of August increased to GBP67 million, up 31% on a reported basis on last year, and 36% at constant exchange rates.
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Mariana Resources Gets Further Positive Results From Condor De Oro Project; Positive Indications In All Wide Spaced Scout Holes On Project
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Naibu Global International H1 Pretax Profit CNY206.5M Vs CNY214.8M; Naibu International H1 Revenue CNY1.03Bn Vs CNY950.1M; Naibu Global International Says No Dividnd Due To Capital Investment, Need To Conserve Cash; Naibu Global International Says It's Facing Competitive Pressure
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Savannah Resources has reported a wider net loss for its first-half due to increased administrative expenses.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Internet search giant Google Inc has acquired medical device startup Lift Labs for an undisclosed amount. San Fransisco-based Lift Labs is a startup that makes a tremor-canceling device to help people with Parkinson's disease to cancel the shiver that transfers on to the spoon while eating. The Liftware spoon has proven effective with 70% tremor cancellation in clinical trials. The proprietary technology uses an on-board computer to adapt to a user's tremor. The tremor-canceling device, which costs USD295, will continue to be available for sale. It helps improve quality of life for millions of people suffering from Parkinson's disease.
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Italian utility Enel SpA has made an offer to acquire the 60.62% interest held directly and indirectly by Endesa SA in the Chilean company Enersis SA, the parent company for the group's operations in Latin America. The total purchase price comes to EUR8.25 billion based upon an implicit price of 215.0 Chilean pesos for Enersis shares and net of Endesa Latinoamérica's structural costs and net liabilities that equal EUR144 million. The stakes to be acquired are 20.30% of Enersis held directly by Endesa, and 100% of Endesa Latinoamérica SA, which in turn holds 40.32% of Enersis.
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Internet company Yahoo! Inc. was threatened with a fine of USD250,000 per day by the US government for its refusal to comply with a request from the National Security Agency to hand over user data under the PRISM surveillance program, revealed Ron Bell, the company's general counsel, on Yahoo's Tumblr page. The PRISM electronic data mining program was exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden who was a former NSA contractor. Nearly all major US technology firms were listed as participants in the program. The program is said to have withdrawn in 2011.
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Friday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

JPMorgan Brazil Investment Trust
SVM UK Emerging Fund
Anite
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Contact: +44 203 668 7440; newsroom@alliancenews.com; @AllNewsTeam

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