Hill & Smith Share News (HILS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares have opened lower in London Thursday, as volatility in bond markets continues to depress global equities.

Keller Group is leading FTSE 250 fallers, down 3.8%, after saying it had made a slow start to 2015.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.8% at 6,892.73
FTSE 250: down 0.5% at 17,776.95
AIM ALL-SHARE: flat at 759.68
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Hang Seng: down 0.2% at 27,205.39
Nikkei 225: closed down 1.0% at 19,570.24
DJIA: closed flat at 18,060.49
S&P 500: closed flat at 2,098.48
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GBP: up at USD1.5777
EUR: up at USD1.1425

GOLD: up at USD1,217.49 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD67.16 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Thursday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in BST)

Ascension Day holiday - Germany, France and Switzerland
11:00 Ireland Consumer Price Index
13:30 US Producer Price Index
13:30 US Jobless Claims
13:30 Canada New Housing Price Index
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage
15:30 Canada BoC Review
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An index measuring the average asking price for a house in the UK surged 33% in April, the latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed. That exceeded expectations for an increase of 22%, which would have been unchanged from the rate in March. A dwindling number of houses on the market fuelled the spike in prices, the group said, as demand remains consistent.
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Senate negotiators scrambled to salvage a trade measure that is key to promoting two of US President Barack Obama's top economic priorities - trade deals with the Pacific Rim and with Europe. In a compromise deal, the Senate will again take up fast-track trade authority at 2 pm local time Thursday after it was surprisingly blocked on Tuesday by Obama's own Democrats. But that will only happen after Democrats get their way with consideration of two separate trade measures - one on cracking down on currency manipulation by trading partners, and a second that would extend the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
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Amtrak train 188 was travelling 170 kilometres per hour when it derailed outside of Philadelphia, more than twice the 80 kilometres per hour authorized for the curve on that stretch of rail. Robert Sumwalt, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said that section of track lacked an automatic braking system, called positive train control, designed to slow down a speeding train.
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Islamic State has made territorial gains in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, the military and activists said, as the Iraqi government said a senior commander in the extremist militia had been killed. Jihadists have pushed deeper in the past few days into areas near their stronghold in Falluja, one of the main cities in Iraq's western province of Anbar, an Iraqi army officer said. The Iraqi Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that Abu Alaa al-Afri, seen as the deputy leader of Islamic State, had been killed in an airstrike carried out by a US-led coalition.
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A former Burundian intelligence chief announced he had seized power while President Pierre Nkurunziza was away at an East African summit. Major-General Godefroid Niyombare, who is also a former army chief of staff, announced the coup on local radio station Radio Isanganiro. But the presidency replied via Twitter that "the situation is under control, there is no coup in Burundi." It said later on its website that the "far-fetched" coup attempt had been foiled and that security forces were looking for those behind it so they could be put on trial.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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TRADERS: UBS CUTS GLAXOSMITHKLINE TO 'NEUTRAL' ('BUY')
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TRADERS: JEFFERIES INITIATES CENTRICA WITH 'BUY'
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PANMURE INITIATES XP POWER WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 1709 PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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ITV reiterated expectations for further strong growth across the business for 2015, and guided for a 5% rise in net advertising revenue for its first half, as it posted a rise in revenue for its first quarter.
ITV Family net advertising revenue rose 12% in the first quarter to end-March, ahead of the 11% that company had previously guided at the time of its full-year results. ITV Family net advertising revenue was up 5% in April, but is forecast to be down 5% in May and by between 5% and 7% in June, as in the previous year results were boosted by the World Cup. As a result, ITV is guiding for 5% growth for its first half.
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Hikma Pharmaceuticals reiterated its guidance for 2015, saying it had made a good start to the year, and expressed confidence for growth over the longer-term. The company continues to expect revenue growth of around 6% at constant currency for the full year, although it also continues to expect the strong dollar to hit revenue and therefore at actual exchange rates expects growth of 2%.
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Aggreko retained its 2015 guidance as it cautioned that it can't predict the impact of the lower oil prices on its markets, even though revenue rose 8% in the first quarter of the year as it got a boost from the stronger dollar and as growth in the Americas and Europe, Middle East and Africa offset a decline in Asia Pacific and Australia. The temporary power provider said it still expects its 2015 trading profit excluding currency movements and pass-through fuel to be broadly in line with 2014, even though its revenue on the same basis rose 4% in the first quarter of the year and total revenue rose 8%.
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Merlin Entertainments reported growth in revenue in the 18 weeks to May 2, boosted by new site openings and features and good weather, as it continues its strategic expansion plans. The attractions and theme park operator, which runs LEGOLAND parks, Madame Tussauds wax museums, SEA LIFE aquariums and the London Eye, said total group revenue grew 7.2% in the 18 weeks, while like-for-like sales grew 3.3%.
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Old Mutual reported a net client cash inflow, higher sales and growth in funds under management in the first quarter of 2015. In a statement, the Anglo-South African financial services group said gross sales amounted to GBP7.35 billion in the three months ended March 31, compared with GBP6.25 billion in the corresponding period of the prior year, driven by its emerging markets and wealth operations.
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British Land said its net asset value and profit rose in its last financial year, buoyed by portfolio valuation gains, a result it said supported its decision to reposition its property portfolio towards the buoyant property market in London and the South East if England. The property developer reported a pretax profit of GBP1.79 billion for the year to March 31, up from GBP1.11 billion a year earlier, while its pretax profit excluding non-controlling interest rose to GBP313 million from GBP297 million. Its EPRA net asset value per share rose to 899 pence, from 688p a year earlier.
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Glencore and Barrick Gold are understood to be looking to sell a joint nickel development project in Tanzania, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The pair own half apiece of the Kabanga nickel project in north west Tanzania and have been sounding out potential buyers for several months, the sources said, adding that neither has yet hired a bank to sell the property.
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Standard Chartered is looking to sell its Hong Kong pension business, Reuters reported. The report, which cited people with knowledge of the matter, said the business, valued at about USD350 million, could attract the likes of Prudential, Principal Financial Group, Metlife and Manulife Financial in an auction.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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TalkTalk Telecom Group upgraded its compound annual revenue growth target through the financial year 2017, and expects to grow revenue by at least 5% per year beyond 2017, as it posted a rise in pretax profit for its recently ended financial year. For the year to end-March, TalkTalk posted a pretax profit of GBP32 million, up from GBP31 million a year before, as a rise in revenue to GBP1.80 billion from GBP1.72 billion offset exceptional costs of GBP63 million. TalkTalk proposed a final dividend of 9.2 pence, taking its total dividend for the year to 13.8p, up from 12.0p a year before. It said it plans to grow its dividend in the current year by 15%.
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Investment manager Brewin Dolphin Holdings said it has struck a deal to sell its Stocktrade execution-only division to Alliance Trust Savings, a division of investment trust Alliance Trust, for GBP14 million in cash. Edinburgh-based Stocktrade had assets under administration of GBP4.3 billion at September 28 last year, Brewin said, and posted a pretax profit of GBP1.3 million for the year to September 28, 2014. Brewin expects the transaction to result in a net gain of GBP1 million.
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Euromoney Institutional Investor warned that challenging trading conditions are likely to continue for the forseeable future, although it expects a boost from the strength of the dollar, as one-off gains from asset sales helped lift its pretax profit for the first half of its financial year.
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Vedanta Resources posted a massive net loss for its last financial year as it booked a USD4.5 billion impairment to reflect the fall in commodity prices, mainly the oil price, and it said it had moved to cut costs and re-phase its capital expenditure plans to cope with the downturn. The India-Focused metals miner and oil producer reported a net loss of USD1.80 billion for the 12 months to end-March compared with a loss of USD196.0 million a year earlier, while the loss from continuing operations was USD3.79 billion compared with a profit of USD989.4 million.
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Building products distributor SIG said its like-for-like revenue in the first four months of 2015 was flat, as a solid performance in the UK and Ireland was offset by weakness in Europe. SIG said the flat like-for-like revenue performance compared to 9.3% growth a year earlier. Total revenue was boosted this year by acquisitions, but this was offset by adverse exchange rate movements, notably the depreciation of the euro, the company said.
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Industrial engineering company Melrose Industries said it remains confident of its prospects for the coming year, with its Elster gas, electricity and water metering business performing well but its Brush electricity generation arm hit by slow end-market generator demand.
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Ground engineering company Keller Group said profit and revenue fell in the first four months of 2015 due to the completion of a project in Australia, delays on major projects and the impact of adverse weather conditions in North America. Keller said profit and revenue in the first four months has fallen as expected, due to the end of the Wheatstone project in Australia, delays on major projects and the heavy snowfall in North America at the end of February and in early March.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Whampoa said it is in exploratory negotiations with VimpelCom on the potential formation of an equal joint venture merging 3 Italia, an indirect subsidiary of the company in Italy, and WIND Telecomunicazioni, a wholly owned subsidiary of VimpelCom in Italy.
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Spanish telecom group Telefonica said its first-quarter net income was EUR1.802 billion, compared to EUR688 million euros last year. Revenue increased 13% to EUR11.543 billion from EUR10.251 billion last year. Organic revenue growth was 3.3%.
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Italian insurer The Generali Group reported that its earnings attributable to the group for the first-quarter 2015 were EUR682 million, an increase of 3.3% from EUR660 million in the same quarter last year. Without taking into account the one-off effect of discontinued operations, net profit increased by 10%. Net earned premiums rose to EUR17.57 billion from EUR15.50 billion.
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Cisco Systems, the world's largest computer networking gear maker, said its third quarter profit rose 12% from last year, helped by higher revenue and improved gross margin. The company's quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, beat analysts' estimate by a penny and its quarterly revenue just managed to beat analysts' forecast. "Cisco is in a very strong position and we delivered another solid quarter. Our vision and strategy are working and we are executing very well in a tough environment, as evidenced in our revenue growth, profitability, strong gross margins and cash generation," said John Chambers, Cisco chairman and CEO. This is Cisco's last quarterly results with Chambers as CEO, as he prepares to hand over reigns to another company veteran Chuck Robbins.
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Thursday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

AMEC Foster Wheeler
Arbuthnot Banking Group
Hill & Smith Holdings
ITV
Rathbone Brothers
St James's Place
Balfour Beatty
Cairn
Chime Comunications
Fidelity Asian Values
Hikma
LMS Capital
Petrofac
Next
Old Mutual
Keller
SIG
UBM
Lloyds Banking Group
Restaurant Group
Unite Group
Vesuvius
ProPhotonix
Xcite Energy
Xchanging
Prudential
Melrose Industries
Merlin Entertainments
UTV Media
Paddy Power
French Connection
Exova
Asia Resource Minerals
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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