Wood Group (J) Share News (WG.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Share prices in London have opened slightly weaker Friday, following the disappointment caused by the European Central Bank's pallid easing measures on Thursday, but that hasn't stopped the UK government from selling another batch of shares in Lloyds Banking.

The government also said it will extend the trading plan it is using to sell its shares in Lloyds on the stock exchange, as it cut its stake to 9.2% from 9.89% previously. Lloyds shares were up 0.2% early Friday.

Berkeley Group Holdings led FTSE 100 gainers, up 6.4%, after announcing an increase to its dividend payment plan, while Whitbread shares were at the other end of the blue-chip index, down 2.3%, after being cut to Equal Weight from Overweight by Barclays, according to traders.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.3% at 6,255.14
FTSE 250: down 0.2% at 17,354.58
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.1% at 740.66
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Hang Seng: closed down 0.8% at 22,235.89
Nikkei 225: closed down 2.2% at 19,504.48
DJIA: closed down 1.4% at 17,477.67
S&P 500: closed down 1.4% at 2,049.62
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GBP: flat at USD1.5088 (USD1.5085)
EUR: up at USD1.0877 (USD1.0845)

GOLD: soft at USD1,059.49 per ounce (USD1,060.00)
OIL (Brent): flat at USD43.67 a barrel (USD43.74)

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

OPEC meeting

13:30 US Nonfarm Payrolls, Unemployment Rate , Hourly Earnings
13:30 US Trade Balance
13:30 Canada Unemployment Rate, Labor Productivity
13:30 Canada International Merchandise Trade
15:00 Canada Ivey Purchasing Managers Index
21:00 US Fed Minneapolis's Narayana Kocherlakota speech
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Germany's factory orders recovered at a faster than expected pace in October, data from Destatis revealed. Factory orders increased 1.8% in October from the previous month, reversing a revised 0.7% fall in September. Economists had forecast a 1.2% rise for October. The decline for September was revised from an initially estimated decrease of 1.7%.
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Japan's consumer confidence strengthened more-than-expected in November to the strongest level in two years, survey data from the Cabinet Office showed. The seasonally adjusted consumer confidence index rose to 42.6 in November from 41.5 in the previous month. Economists had expected the index to increase slightly to 41.7. The latest reading was the highest since November 2013, when it marked 43.0.
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After overwhelmingly approving legislation to rewrite the No Child Left Behind education law on Wednesday, House lawmakers once again acted in a bipartisan manner on Thursday to pass a multi-year highway bill. The House voted 359 to 65 in favour of the bill, which authorizes USD305 billion in spending on transportation projects over the next five years. All of the "no" votes came from the Republican side of the aisle. Final passage of the legislation would mark the first time lawmakers have approved a long-term national transportation spending bill in a decade.
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US lawmakers introduced a bill that would increase scrutiny of travellers from nations included in the US visa waiver programme in a bid to prevent terrorists from entering the US. The move follows steps announced by the Obama administration this week to strengthen the visa waiver programme in light of the terrorist attacks in Paris. The bill would require the 38 countries in the visa waiver programme to have an e-passport, report stolen and lost passports to Interpol and require travellers who have been to Iraq or Syria to undergo visa screening.
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The US is charging 16 additional FIFA officials with corruption in a new indictment, after initial charges filed against 14 people in May, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said. "A grand jury in Brooklyn has returned a 92-count superseding indictment, which includes charges against 16 new defendants, all of whom are current or former soccer officials," Lynch said. "It charges high-ranking officials of other soccer governing bodies, including the current and former presidents of the soccer associations of Central and South America."
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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu expresses optimism that tensions with Russia will die down after meeting his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in the first high-level meeting between the two nations since Turkey shot down a Russian jet. "I'm sure that calmer minds will prevail, and we'll be able to take our relationship back to the old days," Cavusoglu says after the meeting in Belgrade, the Anadolu news agency reports.But Lavrov reported no rapprochement was achieved on the sidelines of a conference of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. "We heard nothing new," Lavrov said.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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CITIGROUP CUTS INMARSAT TO 'NEUTRAL' ('BUY') - TARGET 1150 PENCE
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TRADERS: BARCLAYS CUTS WHITBREAD TO 'EQUAL WEIGHT' ('OVERWEIGHT')
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Liberum Upgrades Hunting To Hold From Sell, Target At 311p
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Liberum Upgrades AMEC Foster Wheeler To Hold From Sell, Target At 476p
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Liberum Upgrades John Wood Group To Hold From Sell, Target At 542p
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Liberum Upgrades Petrofac To Buy From Hold, Target At 1,302p
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GOLDMAN CUTS GENEL ENERGY TO 'NEUTRAL' ('BUY') - TARGET 333 (677) PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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The UK government said it will extend the trading plan it is using to sell its shares in Lloyds Banking Group on the stock exchange, before putting a stop to the institutional sales programme ahead of a planned retail share sale. UK Financial Investments, the body responsible for managing the government's shareholdings in bailed-out banks, said the government's stake has now been reduced to 9.2% of Lloyds from 9.89% previously. The trading plan will continue to be managed by Morgan Stanley & Co International PLC, UKFI added, and must be stopped earlier than June 30, 2016
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Royal Bank of Scotland Group has plans to revisit whether to sell its Irish Ulster Bank as early as next year, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday afternoon. The report, which cited a person with knowledge of the matter, said that a spokesperson for RBS said the bank's strategy for Ulster Bank "remains unchanged".
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Budget carrier easyJet said its passenger traffic and load factor both improved in November. The low-cost airline said it carried 4.8 million passengers in November, compared to 4.4 million a year earlier, up 9.6%. On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger numbers were up 6.8% to 69.6 million, it said. It also said its load factor for the month improved, up to 90.3% from 89.5%
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International Consolidated Airlines Group on Thursday afternoon said that group traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, increased by 14.3% in November, versus the same months the prior, or up 7.2% on a pro-forma basis. Capacity measured in available seat kilometres rose by 11.7%, or up 4.3% on a pro-forma basis.
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Berkeley Group Holdings said pretax profit dipped in the first half due to gains it made a year earlier from the sale of ground rent assets, though revenue increased and Berkeley also announced a boost to its dividend programme. The housebuilder, which almost exclusively focuses on more-expensive developments in London and the South East of England, said its pretax profit fell to GBP293.3 million in the six months to the end of October from GBP304.9 million a year before, primarily due to the one-off gain made a year earlier from the sale of ground rent assets.
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Carlton & United Breweries, an Australian subsidiary of London-listed brewer SABMiller, has recalled a batch of its Carlton Dry lager amid reports glass had been found in a batch of the beers. The company did not provide any information on the exact nature of the problem which has caused the recall. It said: "There may be an issue with one batch of stock as a result of packaging the product." A Reuters report, however, said the recall totalled more than a million bottles of Carlton Dry, providing a setback for the company ahead of the key holiday season. A spokeswoman for Carlton told Reuters the company had alerted food safety authorities after customers complained of suspected traces of glass in their beers.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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JD Wetherspoon said computer hackers have obtained information relating to customers and staff, with the pub chain operator now considering how to strengthen its defences. Wetherspoon said it has called in a cyber security specialist to carry out a "full forensic investigation" into the breach, on top of sending an alert to customers via email.
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Spread betting and contracts-for-difference company IG Group Holdings said it has appointed interim chief executive Peter Hetherington as its permanent CEO. Hetherington, previously chief operating officer, has been interim CEO since the company's AGM in October, following the retirement of predecessor Tim Howkins.
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Ladbrokes announced it has appointed John Kelly as the company's new chairman ahead of the proposed merger with Coral Group following the departure of Peter Erskine. Kelly was a senior non-executive director at Ladbrokes prior to the appointment, and has now formally taken over the role from Erskine who announced he was leaving the company back in May. Kelly also will be chairman of the new merger entity Ladbrokes Coral.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Payments processor Worldpay Group is to enter the small business lending market with the launch of a new unit which will offer flexible loans to SME customers, the Financial Times reported. Worldpay Business Finance, created as a partnership with cash advances provider Liberis, will offer loans based on a company's future credit and debt sales. Worldpay is set to join the FTSE 100 later this month.
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Non-Standard Finance said it has agreed to acquire Everyday Loans Holdings from Secure Trust Bank PLC for an enterprise value of GBP235.0 million. Non-Standard Finance, which was established to acquire consumer finance businesses, said it will fund the deal with a trio of measures, including a share placing.
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Veterinary services provider CVS Group said it has struck deals to acquire Albavet and The Pet Crematorium and has secured a new financing facility. CVS said it will pay GBP11.3 million to acquire Albavet. Albavet employs 34 professional vets across 11 surgeries, along with a veterinary buying group and an instrumentation business. The company has also acquired The Pet Crematorium, which operates two crematoria in Durham and Hamilton in Scotland. No financial details were disclosed on the deal.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Toshiba, Fujitsu and Sony's spin-off Vaio are exploring a merger of their personal computer operations, the Nikkei business daily reported. According to the report, the three companies will start negotiations soon, with plans to reach a basic agreement as early as this month and launch of the combined company in April 2016. Fujitsu said in October that it plans to spin off its PC operations in 2016. A combined company will control over 30% of the Japanese market.
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Automaker Fiat Chrysler announced the recall of 105,458 vehicles in the US for potential brake system problems. The models affected include the 2013-2014 Dodge Dart sedan equipped with 2-litre and 2.4-litre engines. A possible technical defect in the braking systems could extend the distance it takes to stop the vehicles. The company is aware of seven accidents and two minor injuries that may have resulted from the flaw. An additional 15,700 vehicles are being recalled in Canada and Mexico for the same defect, according to the company statement.
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Beauty products maker Avon Products is in advanced talks to sell its North American business to a private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, the Wall Street journal reported citing people familiar with the matter. As part of the deal, Cerberus would make a minority investment in Avon that would strengthen the company's balance sheet. Cerberus would become Avon's biggest shareholder and might get board seats, the Journal said.
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Friday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Associated British Foods
Physiomics
DFS Furniture
Green REIT
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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