Vodafone Share News (VOD)

LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares have ignored a weak Asian session to open higher Tuesday.

Europe's largest home improvement retailer Kingfisher gave a lift to the market, reporting an increase in profits and revenues for its recent financial year, despite continued weakness in its French business. Kingfisher also said it is looking for a strategic partner for its business in China.

Oriel Securities responded by raising the FTSE 100 stock to Hold from Reduce.

At the open, Kingfisher shares were up 3.2%.

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 6,583.58
FTSE 250: up 0.7% at 16,131.29
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.6% at 850.97
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Hang Seng: closed down 0.5% at 21,732.32
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.4% at 14,423.19
DJIA: closed down 0.2% at 16,276.69
S&P 500: closed down 0.5% at 1,857.44
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GBP-USD: flat at USD1.6494
EUR-USD: flat at USD1.3836

GOLD: up at USD1,313.55 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD106.88 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Tuesday's Key Economic Events still to come

09:00 Germany IFO
09:00 Italy Trade Balance non-EU
09:30 UK BBA Mortgage Approvals
09:30 UK Consumer Price Index
09:30 UK DCLG House Price Index
09:30 UK Producer Price Index
09:30 UK Retail Price Index
11:00 UK CBI Distributive Trades Survey
12:55 US Redbook index
13:00 US Housing Price Index
13:00 US S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
14:00 US Consumer Confidence
14:00 US New Home Sales
14:00 US Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index
15:30 US 4-Week Bill Auction
16:00 EU ECB President Draghi's Speech
17:00 US 2-Year Note Auction
20:00 US Fed's Lockhart speech
23:00 US Philadelphia Fed's Plosser speech
23:50 Japan Corporate Service Price
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Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) decided Monday to hold a June summit in Brussels, instead of attending a Group of Eight summit hosted by Russia. The decision by G7 leaders, at an emergency meeting to discuss Moscow's actions in Crimea, came hours after Ukraine ordered the complete withdrawal of its troops from the peninsula, which Russia annexed last week.
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An aid package that would provide USD1 billion in loan guarantees for Ukraine cleared its first hurdle in the Senate despite threats by some opposition Republicans to block it. The 78-17 vote to close debate in the Democratic-controlled Senate signalled the measure would sail through final passage this week in the 100-member upper chamber. The aid legislation faces a stronger resistance in the lower House of Representatives, where Republicans hold the majority.
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The World Bank advised China to tackle environmental degradation and other strains of rapid urbanization by systematically changing how it allocates land, people and capital across the nation.
In a report released Tuesday, the lender said China should build denser, rather than larger, cities to cut down on traffic congestion, air and water pollution and the maintenance costs for infrastructure services.
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A survey monitoring the Chinese economy continued to expand in February, the latest leading index from the Conference Board revealed, adding 0.9% on month to a score of 282.4. That follows the 0.3% increase in January and the 0.4% gain in December.
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Tokyo Electric Power Co shut down a water cleanup system at the Fukushima nuclear plant only hours after it resumed operation, news reports said. The plant's operator halted two of the three lines in the cleanup system late Monday due to a leak at a storage tank, company spokesman Koichiro Shiraki said.
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French business confidence remained unchanged for a third successive month in March, survey data from INSEE indicated Tuesday. The business confidence indicator stood at 100, unchanged since December. The score was in line with economists' expectations.
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Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of Brazil, citing fiscal slippage and subdued growth prospects over the coming years. The long-term bond rating was lowered by one notch to 'BBB-', the lowest investment grade, from 'BBB'. The outlook on the rating remains 'stable' as institutions and balance sheet remain strong.
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North Korea's recent missile tests and continued nuclear programme were in response to provocations by the US including joint military drills with South Korea, a North Korean official said Monday at the United Nations. Ri Tong Il, Pyongyan's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said that the US continues to drive a wedge between North and South Korea by holding military drills with South Korea and releasing "manipulated" reports of human rights abuses in North Korea, which disrupt improving relations on the divided peninsula.
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Salvage crews aboard Australia's HMAS Success were standing by Tuesday to load possible wreckage from flight MH370, which the Malaysian government announced had gone down in the southern Indian Ocean with all 239 lives lost. Planes from five nations trawling a Lithuania-sized patch of ocean midway between Australia and Antarctica have spotted objects they are trying to locate in the 68,500-square-kilometre area, 2,500 kilometres south-west of Perth. So far none of the objects spotted has been located.
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Social media company Twitter pledged Monday to protect the privacy of its users in Turkey, as the government intensified its blockade of the service. "Twitter remains committed to defending the privacy of our users in Turkey - we won't betray their trust," said a tweet from Twitter's public policy team. The message, sent out in Turkish and English, came amid growing speculation that the government is pressuring Twitter for information on its users.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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TRADERS: ORIEL RAISES KINGFISHER TO 'HOLD' ('REDUCE')
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TRADERS: BERNSTEIN RAISES SABMILLER TO 'OUTPERFORM'
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JPMORGAN REINITIATES VODAFONE WITH 'OVERWEIGHT' - PRICE TARGET 270 PENCE
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JPMORGAN CUTS POLYMETAL TO 'NEUTRAL' ('OVERWEIGHT') - TARGET 660 (610) PENCE
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CITIGROUP RAISES BOVIS HOMES TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 990 (980) PENCE
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CITIGROUP RAISES TRAVIS PERKINS TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 2040 PENCE
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UBS CUTS KENTZ CORPORATION TO 'NEUTRAL' ('BUY') - TARGET 820 (730) PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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RSA Insurance Group PLC Tuesday launched a GBP773.0 million fully-underwritten, discounted rights issue in order to shore up its balance sheet, as Chief Executive Stephen Hester's recovery plan for the troubled FTSE 100 insurer begins to take shape. RSA, which has battled with increased claims costs and an accounting scandal in its Ireland business, is offering three shares for every eight owned by current shareholders at 56.0 pence each, a 40% discount to Monday's closing price. In early trading Tuesday, RSA shares are quoted at 93.24 pence, down 01.%
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Europe's largest home improvement retailer Kingfisher PLC said it delivered an increase in profits and revenues for its recent financial year, boosted by a strong performance from its Screwfix business in the UK, as well as its operations in Poland and Russia, and despite continued weakness in its French business. For the year ended February 1, Kingfisher reported a pretax profit of GBP759 million, up from GBP691 million a year earlier, boosted by a 5.2% increase in revenues to GBP11.13 billion for the year, in line with analyst expectations and an increase on the GBP10.57 billion in revenues reported a year earlier. Kingfisher declared a full year dividend of 9.9 pence per share, a 4.7% increase on the 9.46 pence a year earlier.
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Royal Mail PLC said it will commence a formal consultation with unions Unite and Communication Workers Union with a proposal to cut 1,600 jobs and create approximately 300 new or enhanced roles as part of its continued efficiency programme. The recently listed postal company said that no frontline staff, i.e. postmen and women, would be affected by the net staff reduction, nor would the services Royal Mail provides to its customers. The cuts will rather affect the Group's operational and head office managerial population, it said.
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British advertising and public relations giant WPP PLC said that it will acquired Chinese marketing services company XMKT Group. XMKT is head quartered in Shanghai, and has clients including Diageo and Uniqlo. In the year ended December 31, 2013, it had revenues of CNY126 million and gross assets of CNY138 million.
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Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC is in preliminary talks with Japanese lender Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc for a sale of RBS' US retail business, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing people familiar with the talks. RBS Citizens Financial Group Inc. has nearly 1,400 branches and over 3,500 ATMs across 12 US states and owns USD122 billion in assets.
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Shares in low-cost airline easyJet PLC have taken off after the company said it expects its pretax loss for the first-half to be smaller than previous expectations and boosted forecast revenue per seat growth, after revising figures announced in January due to the timing of Easter. The FTSE 100-listed company was leading the blue-chip index after it said it now expects to deliver a first half performance ahead of the guidance given in its interim management statement on January 23, when easyJet said it expected its pretax loss for the half-year to come in between GBP70 million and GBP90 million. easyJet's revised expectations state that the firm now expects a narrowed pre-tax loss of GBP55 million - GBP65 million, compared to the GBP61 million pretax loss the previous year for the six months to March 31, 2014.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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KCOM Group PLC said that it is trading in line with expectations for the year ending on March 31. The communications company said it had reached an agreement with the trustees of its defined benefit pension schemes to provide further funding to the scheme through an asset backed partnership, which it established during the previous year. Says Bill Halbert To Assume Role Of Group CEO April 1
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Unite Group Says It Received Valid Acceptances For 15,753,975 Open Offer Shares, Approx 93.6%
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888 Holdings FY Pretax Profit USD53M Vs USD41M; Revenues USD401M Vs USD376M; Total Dividend For Year Of 14.0 Cents Vs 9.0 Cents; Started 2014 Well With Average Daily Revenues Up More Than 8% In Year-To-Date
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AG Barr FY Pretax Profit GBP34.3M Vs GBP31.6M; Revenues GBP254.1M Vws GBP237.6M; Total Dividend For Year 11.02P, Up 10%;CEO: Cautious But Confident In Outlook
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COMPANIES - ALL-SHARE AND AIM
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S&U FY Pretax Profit Up 21% To GBP17.3M Vs GBP14.2M; Revenues Up 11% At GBP60.8M Vs GBP55.0M; Total Dividend For Year Up 17% To 54P Vs 46P
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Costain Appointed To Three Transmission Frameworks With National Grid
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Monitise Raises GBP109M In Oversubscribed Share Placing; Placed 160.6M Shares At 68.0P Each
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Low & Bonar Says Has Made Positive Start To Year With Sales "Comfortably" Ahead Of Last Year; Says Hit To Current Year Reported Profits From Strong Pound Estimated At GBP2M
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Stobart Group And Flybe 5-Year Deal Is For Franchising At London Southend Airport
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Personal Group Wins Contracts With Translink In Northern Ireland And Blackpool Transport
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Faroe Petroleum FY Pretax Profit GBP10.0M Vs pretax Loss GBP29.0M; Revenues Down GBP129.4M Vs GBP158.8M
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WH Ireland Says Has Continued To Trade In Line With Expectations Since Results Announcement
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Mar City Buys 622 UK Land Plots For GBP17.8M; Says Current Land Bank Is About 1,000 Units; Seeking to Buy 2,000 Plots This Year
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Panmure Gordon FY Pretax Profit GBP1.2M Vs GBP595,000; Says Corporate Client List Has Grown In 2014 Start
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Topps Tiles Says H1 Underlying Pretax Profit To Be Around GBP8.0M Vs GBP4.7M; Will Be An Increase In Operating Cost Base For The Year; Confident In Achieving FY Adjust Pretax Profit In Line With Consensus Of GBP16.4M
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Tuesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Low & Bonar
Innovation Group
F&C Asset Management
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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