Johnston Press PLC Share News (JPR)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Share have opened mixed in London Wednesday, amid continued concern about Greek debt negotiations and ahead of a policy announcement by the European Central Bank.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index is underperforming, led down by energy suppliers SSE and National Grid, both down 1.5%.

UK Energy Secretary Amber Rudd has spoken and written to the so-called "Big-Six" energy suppliers to question them about whether prices are reflecting companies' costs as the government places pressure on the companies over their energy prices, the BBC reported Tuesday.

Merlin Entertainments has lost further ground at the open Wednesday, down 1.4%, after shedding 3.5% on Tuesday. Merlin's Alton Towers theme park has been closed down while an investigation takes place into a rollercoaster accident at the attraction on Tuesday which left four people with serious injuries, BBC News reports.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 6,920.23
FTSE 250: up 0.3% at 18,282.78
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 775.84
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Hang Seng: up 0.7% at 27,650.21
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.3% at 20,473.51
DJIA: closed down 0.2% at 18,011.94
S&P 500: closed down 0.1% at 2,109.60
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GBP: flat at USD1.5332
EUR: down at USD1.1129

GOLD: down at USD1,190.92 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD65.03 a barrel

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

08:45 Italy Markit Services PMI
08:45 EU Markit PMI Composite
08:50 France Markit PMI Composite
08:55 Germany Markit Services and Composite PMI
09:00 Italy Unemployment
09:00 EU Markit Services PMI
09:30 UK Markit Services PMI
10:00 EU Retail Sales
10:00 EU Unemployment Rate
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
12:45 EU ECB Interest Rate Decision
13:15 US ADP Employment Change
13:30 US Trade Balance
13:30 EU ECB Monetary policy statement and press conference
13:30 Canada International Merchandise Trade
14:45 US Markit Composite and Services PMI
15:00 US ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks
19:00 US Fed's Beige Book
19:15 US Fed's Evans Speech
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Shop prices in the UK were down 1.9% on year in May, the British Retail Consortium said. That was unchanged from the rate of decline in the previous month, although it missed forecasts for a decline of 1.8% Food prices were steady at -0.9%, the bureau said, while fresh food prices tumbled 1.9% on year.
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UK house prices increased at the slowest pace in 21 months in May, data from the Nationwide Building Society showed. House prices increased 4.6% year-on-year in May, slower than the 5.2% growth seen in April. This was the slowest growth since August 2013 when prices increased 3.5% and also weaker than the expected 4.9% increase. Month-on-month, house prices increased only 0.3% after rising 1% in the previous month. Economists had forecast a 0.4% growth for May.
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The number of British people who want their country to leave the EU has dropped sharply over the last two years, a report said. A survey by the US-based Pew Research Center found 46% of people wanted Britain to leave the EU in 2013, when Prime Minister David Cameron made his vow to hold an in-out referendum by the end of 2017 if he won a second term in office. In a new survey following Cameron's election victory last month, only 36% of some 1,000 respondents said they favoured a so-called Brexit, a British exit from the EU, despite the UK Independence Party running a strong anti-EU campaign. About 55% of respondents said they wanted Britain to remain part of the EU, compared with 46% in 2013, Pew said.
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A draft agreement between Greece and its international creditors to unlock much-needed cash in exchange for tough reforms by Athens is close to being completed, officials said. The last details of the proposed debt deal are being intensively negotiated, eurozone officials said. Greece is due to make a repayment of EUR300 million to the International Monetary Fund on Friday. "There are now signals from Greece, that they are willing to take serious steps," said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who heads up the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Tuesday his government had sent its international creditors a comprehensive proposal on reforms needed to secure further assistance.
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The services sector in China grew at a faster rate in May, the latest report from HSBC Bank showed on Wednesday, with a PMI score of 53.5. That's up from 52.9 in April, and it moves further above the line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The composite index came in at 51.2, down from 51.3 in April.
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The services sector in Japan advanced at an accelerated pace in May, the latest survey from Markit Economics showed on Wednesday, with a PMI score of 51.5. That's up from 51.3 in April. The composite index came in at 51.6, up from 50.7 in April.
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Joseph Blatter's 17-year tenure at the head of FIFA is to come to an end after he announced Tuesday he would resign as head of football's world governing body amid corruption probes, saying FIFA needs "a profound overhaul." Blatter called for an extraordinary congress to elect his successor. Blatter's decision comes four days after the 79-year-old Swiss was elected for a fifth four-year term as head of football's world governing body. Blatter will carry out his functions as FIFA president until a successor is elected. He said there would be significant reforms to be led by Domenico Scala, chairman of FIFA's audit and compliance committee.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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BARCLAYS RAISES UNILEVER TO 'OVERWEIGHT' ('EQUALWEIGHT') - PRICE TARGET 3050 (2850) PENCE
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UBS RAISES MELROSE INDUSTRIES TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 300 (265) PENCE
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UBS CUTS MORGAN ADVANCED MATERIALS TO 'SELL' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 315 PENCE
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UBS CUTS ROTORK TO 'NEUTRAL' ('BUY') - TARGET 266 PENCE
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UBS CUTS SPECTRIS TO 'SELL' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 2000 (2100) PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Dixons Carphone reported growth in like-for-like sales in both the fourth quarter of its financial year and in its full year, and said it expects pro-forma headline pretax profit for the year to exceed the top end of its guidance. The FTSE 100 electricals and telecoms retailer said in a trading update that like-for-like revenue in the 17 weeks to May 2 was up 9% and up 6% for the full year to the same date. The UK and Ireland showed the biggest rise of 13% in the quarter and 8% in the full year.
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TUI Group joint Chief Executive Peter Long is set to become chairman of the travel and cruise operator and the chairman of Royal Mail after the postal operator said he will succeed Donald Brydon as its chair on September 1. In a statement, Royal Mail said Long will join its board as a non-executive director and chairman designate on June 18, and will stand for election at its annual general meeting on July 23. He will then succeed current chairman Brydon at the start of September. TUI Group separately said Long will remain as its co-chief executive until its own AGM in February 2016, at which point he will become chairman of TUI Ag's supervisory board. Fritz Joussen will be appointed TUI's sole chief executive.
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Pharmaceutical company Shire said the European Medicines Agency has approved Resolor for the use in male adults for the treatment of chronic constipation in whom laxatives fail to provide adequate relief. Resolor is approved for use in women in Europe, so this approval extends the use of the treatment to male patients.
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The Alton Towers theme park has been closed down while an investigation takes place into a rollercoaster accident at the attraction on Tuesday which left four people with serious injuries, BBC News reports. Two carriages on the Smiler ride at the park crashed on Tuesday, leaving four people with serious leg injuries and another 12 people requiring medical treatment. Nick Varney, the chief executive of Merlin Entertainments, which runs the park, told the BBC the park will remain closed "until we understand better the cause of this dreadful incident".
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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WH Smith reported a rise in total sales in the 13 weeks to May 30, although it said that like-for-like revenue was flat, as its Travel business outperformed the High Street business. The books and stationery retailer said that total group sales in the 13 weeks were up 1% compared to the same period the year before, but like-for-like revenue remained flat year-on-year.
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Interserve said its CI-ONE Construction joint venture with China State Construction Engineering Corp has been named as the preferred bidder by Chinese property developer Dalian Wanda for the GBP550 million One Nine Elms scheme in Battersea in south London. The pair will handle the construction of the project, which will comprise high-end residential, hotel and retail space, including a new embassy for the US, the regeneration of Battersea Power Station and a new business district.
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Property company Workspace Group said its pretax profit surged higher in the financial year to the end of March, as its rental income increased, occupancy improved and the underlying valuation of its portfolio jumped. Workspace said its pretax profit for 2015 was GBP360 million, up 43% from the GBP252.5 million it posted a year earlier. The group said it will hike its final dividend payout by 15% to 8.15 pence per share, from 7.09 pence, meaning its total dividend is up 13% to 12.04 pence. Workspace also said it has struck a GBP34 million deal to acquire the Angel House property near the Old Street area of London. The net initial yield on the purchase is 3.7%, it said.
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Kier Group said its GBP340 million fully-underwritten rights issue was 91.65% taken up, and the bookrunners are now procuring buyers for the remaining shares. The property and construction services company had announced a five for seven rights issue of 39.6 million new shares at 858 pence a share the end of April. It said 36.3 million had been taken up by the closing time on June 2. Joint bookrunners JP Morgan and Numis Securities are now procuring subscribers for the remaining 3.3 million shares, and will buy the shares themselves if they don't find subscribers.
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UBM said it has acquired Latin American healthcare trade show Hospitalar from SPFC Group for an undisclosed sum. UBM said the return on investment from the buy is expected to exceed its weighted average cost of capital in the first full year of ownership. Hospitalar is a trade show hosted in Brazil which features 1,250 Brazilian and international exhibitors, and attracting around 95,000 attendees. It generated revenue of around BRL32 million at its 2015 show in May.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Irish budget carrier Ryanair Holdings said its traffic grew year-on-year in May and its load factor improved. Ryanair said its traffic grew by 16% in the month to 9.5 million customers, up from 8.2 million a year earlier. The company's rolling annual traffic to May increased by 13% to 93.1 million customers. The load factor for the airline also improved in the month, up by seven percentage points to 92% from 85% a year ago.
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Costain Group said its joint venture with Swedish construction and development company Skanska AB has been named preferred bidder by Highways England to handle two of the three sections of the improvement scheme for the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon project. Costain said the two packages are worth a total of GBP600 million.
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Imperial Innovations Group said it has committed GBP3 million to invest in Auspherix Ltd (UK), a company working on new antibiotics that work against bacteria that have developed resistance to existing treatments. Imperial Innovations, which invests in technology developed from academic research, will own 27.5% of Auspherix, which raised GBP6 million in the funding round as a whole. Imperial Innovations is investing alongside Australia's Medical Research Commercialisation Fund, the founding investor.
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Mears Group said it now has 93% visibility on the revenue that analysts expect it to make in 2015 and 82% visibility on the forecast revenue for 2016, as it makes "solid progress" in its social housing business despite reporting a subdued new bidding market that's set to pick up. The social housing and care sector services company said it has 93% visibility on the GBP881 million analysts' consensus revenue forecast for this year and 82% visibility on the GBP930 consensus forecast for 2016, excluding the acquisition of the Care at Home business of Care UK Ltd that it announced on Monday.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Boeing said that it has started building the first 737 MAX on schedule. Last week, employees started to assemble the wings for the first 737 MAX flight test airplane. Wings are the first 737 components to be assembled in the Renton production process.
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Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

JKX Oil & Gas
Johnston Press
Henderson Global Trust
Amara Mining
Outsourcery
Arrow Global
Mears Group
Robert Walters
Sprue Aegis
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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