UK MIDDAY BRIEFING: Greek Deal Optimism Gives Way To Uncertainty

LONDON (Alliance News) - Market focus remain on Greek debt negotiations Thursday, with overnight optimism giving way to greater uncertainty as trading progressed.

Germany has rejected a proposal by Greece to extend its eurozone bailout loans by six months, government sources told dpa just after midday.

Earlier Thursday, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, had said he had received Greece's request for a six-month extension of its debt programme, days before the European portion of the country's bailout expires.

"Received Greek request for six months extension," Dijsselbloem wrote on Twitter. He didn't specify to what part of Athens' bailout programme the extension applies. Dijsselbloem said Eurozone finance ministers will meet in Brussels on Friday to consider the request. "Eurogroup Friday in Brussels as of 15:00 (1400 GMT)," Dijsselbloem tweeted.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank decided late Wednesday to raise the support under the Emergency Liquidity Assistance for Greek banks to EUR68.3 billion. The ECB reportedly approved EUR3.3 billion funds, in addition to the current EUR65 billion.

Also midday Thursday, the ECB released, for the first time, the minutes of its most recent monetary policy meeting, the one at which a full quantitative easing programme was approved. The minutes showed the large majority of voting member backed the purchase of government bonds at the January 22 meeting.
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Markets: UK shares are trading mixed at midday. US futures point to a mixed open. Both the DJIA and S&P 500 are indicated down 0.1%, while the Nasdaq 100 is up 0.1%.

FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 6,892.48
FTSE 250: up 0.1% at 17,019.57
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.1% at 707.92
GBP-USD: flat at 1.5439
EUR-USD: down at 1.1366
GOLD: up at USD1,219.52 an ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD58.88 a barrel
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Top Corporate News
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Centrica cut its dividend for the full year after swinging to a loss in 2014 on the back of a significant impairment charge, and said it will reduce its costs and capital expenditure budget over the next two years in response to the low oil price. For the year ended December 31, the owner of British Gas reported earnings before interest and tax of GBP1.74 billion, down 35% from GBP2.69 billion, driven by a fall in profit across all of its divisions. Centrica reported post-tax impairments of GBP1.38 billion on exploration, production and power assets to reflect the fall in oil and gas prices during the second-half of 2014, it said. The impairments led to Centrica reporting a GBP1.01 statutory loss attributable to shareholders for 2014, swinging from the GBP950 million profit reported in 2013. As a result of the swing to a loss, Centrica decided to reduce its full-year dividend for 2014, to 13.5 pence per share, which is down 21% from the 17.0 pence per share paid in 2013.
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Aerospace and defence group BAE Systems predicted "marginally higher" earnings growth this year and said it expects US budget pressures to ease, after reporting higher profit but a fall in revenue for 2014. The company reported an operating profit of GBP1.30 billion, up from GBP806 million in 2013. Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, and amortisation, which strips out one-off items, dipped to GBP1.70 billion from GBP1.93 billion last year, while revenue declined by 8.5% to GBP16.64 billion from GBP18.18 billion the year before. The group said revenue was hit by adverse exchange rate movements, lower volumes in its Land & Armament business, and the previous year's boost from a one-off contract settlement with Saudi Arabia for the Eurofighter jet, Salam Typhoon.
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Sports Direct International reported a 2.6% rise in group sales for the third quarter, and a 7.6% increase in gross profit. Sports Direct, the UK's biggest sporting goods retailer by revenue, said it is "very confident" of achieving its full-year internal underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation target of GBP360 million. That would exclude charges for its Employee Bonus Share Schemes, it said.
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Beer and soft drinks giant SABMiller said Chief Financial Officer Jamie Wilson has resigned for "personal reasons", while current Strategy Director Domenic De Lorenzo will become acting CFO with immediate effect. In a statement, SABMiller said Wilson has stepped down from the board with immediate effect, and will leave the group at the end of March. De Lorenzo will be acting CFO until a permanent successor has been found, it said.
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British drinks can maker Rexam said it has reach a deal on the terms of a takeover offer from US rival Ball Corp, in a cash and share deal valuing Rexam at around GBP4.3 billion. Under the terms of the takeover offer, for each Rexam share, Rexam shareholders will receive 407 pence in cash and 0.04568 new Ball shares. Ball said that based on its closing share price of USD74.39 on Tuesday, and the currency exchange rates at the time of the formal offer, the takeover offer represents an indicative value of 628 pence per Rexam share, well above its current share price.
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Go-Ahead Group said it will increase its interim dividend after reporting a rise in profit and revenue in the first half of the year, as its bus division reported strong profit growth. For the six months ended December 27, the company reported profit before tax of GBP44.7 million, an 11% increase from GBP40.3 million reported a year earlier after a significant rise in revenue. Operating profit for the period rose by 6.1% to GBP55.3 million from GBP52.1 million, driven by strong profit growth for Go-Ahead's bus division. Operating profit from its regional bus division increased by 15%, whilst profit from its London bus services rose by 3.8%, partially offset by a 2.9% fall in profit from the company's rail division.
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Rathbone Brothers said it is wary of the potential for political and economic uncertainty at home and abroad to hurt the markets, but is keeping a close eye on opportunities to further grow the business. A challenging year did not stop the British investment manager from reporting an increase in funds under management and pretax profit in 2014, even with heightened volatility in the second half. The company raised its total dividend for 2014 to 52 pence from 49 pence for 2013. The note of caution to Rathbone Brothers' growth plans came as the company reported a GBP45.7 million pretax profit for 2014, representing a 3.3% increase on the prior year.
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Petra Diamonds said it will pay a maiden dividend at the end of the financial year after reporting a rise in earnings and profit during the first half, and said revenue and production will increase during the second half. For the six months ended December 31, the company reported a rise in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of USD84.9 million from USD69.4 million a year earlier after revenue increased, it said.
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AIM Movers
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Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings), up 19%. The companies involved in the Wressle-1 well on the PEDL180 license in the UK said they have received "encouraging results" from the flow tests being carried out on the Wingfield flags reservoir, and said they will start a production test afterwards. Europa Oil & Gas has a 33.3% interest.

Jupiter Energy, off 31%. The company said it will cease all of its production at the beginning of March in response to lower oil prices, and said it will restructure the company to reduce costs until it recommences production. Jupiter's only asset, Block 9 on the Mangistau Basin in south west Kazakhstan, will cease production on March 1, after the company said oil production has become "uneconomic" following the decline of the oil price since the middle of 2014.
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Other Top Economics And General
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The US Federal Reserve was in no hurry to signal a possible interest rate hike in its January meeting, according to the minutes of the Fed's most recent policy meeting. However, that meeting took place before January's exceptionally strong jobs report was available, and a number of policy makers have since indicated a willingness to raise rates in June. The Fed said information reviewed for the January 27-28 meeting showed that economic activity expanded at a solid pace over the second half of 2014, and that labor market conditions had again improved in recent months. Even so, members agreed to continue to include language indicating that the Fed can "be patient" in beginning to normalize the stance of monetary policy, particularly given the dramatic drop in energy prices and low inflation.
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The UK's City regulator said it will investigate competition in investment and corporate banking following a review of the wholesale markets. In a statement, the Financial Conduct Authority said a review into competition in the wholesale sector found that limited clarity over price and quality of services may make it difficult for clients to assess whether they are getting value for money. The watchdog also said that the bundling and cross selling of services could make it difficult for new entrants or smaller established firms to challenge established large players in the market.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times in GMT)

13:30 US Initial Jobless Claims
13:30 US Continuing Jobless Claims
15:00 US CB Leading Indicator (MoM)
15:00 EU Consumer Confidence Preliminary
15:00 US Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage change
16:00 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks change
16:30 Germany German Buba President Weidmann speech
17:15 Canada BoC Governor Council Member Cote Speech
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Friday's Key UK Corporate Events

Standard Life - Full Year Results
Essentra - Full Year Results
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Friday's Key Economic Events (all times in GMT)

China Chinese New Year

EU Eurogroup meeting
01:35 Japan Nomura/ JMMA Manufacturing Purchasing Manager Index Preliminary
07:00 Germany Producer Price Index
08:00 France Markit Manufacturing, Services and Composite PMI Preliminary
08:30 Germany Markit Manufacturing, Services and Composite PMI Preliminary
09:00 Italy Industrial Orders
09:00 EU Markit Manufacturing, Services and Composite PMI Preliminary
09:30 UK Public Sector Net Borrowing
09:30 UK Retail Sales
10:00 Italy Consumer Price Index
13:30 Canada Retail Sales
14:45 US Markit Manufacturing PMI Preliminary
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