Land Securities Share News (LAND)

LONDON (Alliance News) - A sell-off of tech stocks on Wall Street has led to a lower open in London Friday. Shares in Apple continued to fall in New York, following its earlier report of weaker iPhone sales, after investor Carl Icahn said Thursday he has sold his stake in the company.

In London, FTSE 100 decliners were led by British Airways-owner IAG, down 3.5% despite reporting a swing to a pretax profit in the first quarter of 2016, boosted by growth in traffic, passenger numbers and revenue.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 1.0% at 6,260.88
FTSE 250: down 0.7% at 16,941.04
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.1% at 729.63
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Hang Seng: down 1.4% at 21,093.40
Nikkei 225: Tokyo market closed for holiday
DJIA: closed down 1.2% at 17,830.76
S&P 500: closed down 0.9% at 2,075.81
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GBP: up at USD1.4649 (USD1.4586)
EUR: up at USD1.1406 (USD1.1318)

GOLD: up at USD1,274.16 per ounce (USD1,264.30)
OIL (Brent): firm at USD47.84 a barrel (USD47.60)

(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 BST)

holiday Japan Showa Day

09:00 Italy unemployment
09:00 Switzerland SNB Chairman Jordan speech
09:30 UK mortgage approvals, net lending to individuals, M4 money supply
10:00 EU unemployment rate
10:00 EU GDP preliminary
10:00 EU consumer price index preliminary
10:00 Italy consumer price index preliminary
11:00 Italy producer price index
13:00 UK MPC Member Cunliffe speech
13:30 US personal income and spending
13:30 US personal consumption expenditures - price index
13:30 US employment cost index
13:30 Canada gross domestic product
13:30 Canada industrial product and raw material price indices
14:45 US Chicago purchasing managers' index
15:00 US Reuters/Michigan consumer sentiment index
18:00 US Baker Hughes US oil rig count
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Motorists have been warned that the UK bank holiday getaway will add around 25% to normal traffic levels from 3pm until early evening on Friday. Drivers should delay their journeys until after 7pm to avoid the expected surge in congestion, according to the AA. Some main routes in and around London and the South East could experience a 50% increase in regular Friday late afternoon traffic, the motoring organisation said. It expects 10 million motorists to take to the road at some point over the weekend - around a third of all licence holders.
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The French economy expanded at a faster pace in the first quarter largely driven by a rebound in household spending, the statistical office Insee reported. Gross domestic product grew 0.5% sequentially, faster than the 0.3% expansion seen in previous quarter. It was also bigger than the expected 0.4% rise.
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A series of airstrikes on a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo has left at least 30 people dead, a local volunteer said. "We have 30 bodies: 22 identified and eight others whose names are not known yet," Abdel-Rahman, a member of the non-governmental group the White Helmet Civil Defence told dpa by phone. He said the death toll is expected to rise as more bodies are pulled from the rubble of the al-Qudos hospital in the rebel-held al-Sukari neighbourhood. The identity of the warplanes that carried out the attacks was not known.
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North Korea failed to launch another medium-range ballistic missile Thursday evening, its second attempt of the day after an earlier test also ended in failure, according to South Korean military sources cited by Yonhap news agency. The first rocket crashed "a few seconds" after being launched at the country's east coast earlier Thursday, the sources said, and the second rocket likely blew up midflight.
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Consumer confidence in the UK worsened more than expected in April, after remaining steady in the previous month, survey data from Gfk showed. The consumer confidence index dropped to -3 in April from 0 in the preceding month. Economists had expected the index to fall to -1. "Trends in confidence show our degree of optimism about the state of the economy and this indicator will make for interesting reading between now and the EU referendum on June 23rd," Joe Staton, head of Market Dynamics at GfK, said.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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UBS RAISES BT GROUP TO 'NEUTRAL' (SELL) - PRICE TARGET 430 PENCE
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MACQUARIE INITIATES MEDICLINIC INTERNATIONAL WITH 'NEUTRAL' - TARGET 920 PENCE
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TRADERS: HSBC RAISES BRITISH LAND CO TO 'BUY' ('HOLD')
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TRADERS: HSBC RAISES LAND SECURITIES GROUP TO 'BUY' ('HOLD')
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TRADERS: HSBC RAISES WEIR GROUP TO 'HOLD' ('REDUCE')
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Royal Bank of Scotland Group said its first-quarter net loss widened after paying a fee to the UK government that will eventually allow the state-backed lender to resume dividends. RBS's net loss, which included a GBP1.19 billion payment to the government to retire the so-called dividend access share, amounted to GBP968 million in the three months ended March 31, the lender said in a statement, widening from the GBP459 million net loss the corresponding quarter a year earlier. First-quarter pretax profit jumped to GBP421 million from GBP37 million. The results come after RBS on Thursday warned there is a significant risk it will miss a deadline by which it must sell the UK retail branch network known as Williams & Glyn.
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AstraZeneca reiterated its full-year guidance for 2016 at constant currency, as it said revenue rose 5% in the first quarter on a constant currency basis, driven by a significant increase in externalisation revenue. At actual exchange rates, revenue grew by 1.0% to USD6.12 billion in the first quarter of 2016 from USD6.06 billion a year before. AstraZeneca said it expects an adverse hit to its revenue of around 2% from currency movements based on average exchange rates in the full year 2016. The company reiterated expectations for its core earnings per share and total revenue both are for a low- to mid-single-digit percentage decline in 2016.
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International Consolidated Airlines Group said it swung to a pretax profit in the first quarter of 2016, boosted by growth in traffic, passenger numbers and revenue. The first quarter of the year is traditionally quiet for airlines. IAG - which owns British Airways, Ireland's Aer Lingus, and Spanish carriers Iberia and Vueling - said it made a pretax profit of EUR124 million in the three months to March 31, having suffered a EUR37 million pretax loss in the first quarter of 2015. Revenue grew to EUR5.08 billion from EUR4.71 billion, boosted by 14% growth in traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometres, and a 22% rise in passenger numbers.
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Anheuser-Busch InBev said it has offered to divest the entirety of SABMiller's assets in Eastern and Central Europe in order to address potential regulatory concerns related to its takeover of SABMiller. The businesses comprise Dreher Breweries in Hungary, Kompania Piwowarska in Poland, Plzensky Prazdroj and Pivovary Topvar in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and Ursus Breweries in Romania. The move comes after AB InBev agreed earlier this month the sale of SABMiller's Peroni, Grolsch and Meantime brands to Japan's Asahi Group Holdings for EUR2.55 billion.
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Education materials company Pearson reiterated its guidance for 2016, as it said it continued to trade in line with expectations in the first quarter of the year, seeing underlying sales decline by 4%. In a statement ahead of its annual general meeting, Pearson said it continues to expect an adjusted operating profit and adjusted earnings per share before restructuring costs of between GBP580 million and GBP620 million and between 50 pence and 55 pence, respectively, for the full year. The company said its sales were down 4% in the first quarter in underlying terms, hit by weakness in assessment revenues in the US and UK.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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The Restaurant Group warned on profit for its full financial year after experiencing a "deterioration in trading conditions" which will lead to a fall in full-year like-for-like sales, as it revealed the resignation of its chief financial officer. The restaurant operator, which runs the Frankie & Benny's, Chiquito and Garfunkel's chains, said it is continuing to see a deterioration in trading conditions in financial 2016 so far, particularly in the leisure business, which it had warned on at the release of its financial 2015 results last month. In the 17 weeks to April 24, total sales grew by 4.7% but like-for-like sales fell by 2.7% as a result of the difficult trading.
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Rotork said favourable exchange rates and acquisition contributions drove up revenue and order intake in its first quarter, and announced the purchase of valve gearbox manufacturer Mastergear for USD25.0 million. The actuators manufacturer said its order intake rose 2.5% over the period from the start of 2016 to April 3, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, whilst revenue rose 0.7%. Rotork said it benefited from favourable exchange rates, which contributed 3.1% to order intake and 3.0% to revenue, and its acquisitions contributed 8.4% to order intake and 9.2% to revenue. On an organic basis, order intake was down 9.0% and revenue down 12%.
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Industrial valve and pumps maker Weir Group on Thursday faced the most significant investor revolt of any UK-listed company so far in 2016 as 72% of its shareholders voted to reject its remuneration policy. The rejection came as Weir said trading in the first quarter was slightly ahead of its expectations, boosted by cost cutting and a resilient performance from its minerals arm. Weir said 72% of shareholders voted against its remuneration policy, with the same proportion also voting against amendments to its long-term incentive plan rules. As a result, both resolutions failed to pass.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has sold his stake in Apple, he said in an interview with CNBC, citing concerns about China's attitude toward the company. Icahn said Apple is a great company but no longer a "no-brainer" as an investment choice. The activist investor said he was worried "about China's attitude" toward Apple, and said the nation "could be a shadow" for the company.
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Shares of Amazon.com jumped 12% in after-hours trade after the online retailer reported a first-quarter profit and revenues that trumped Wall Street estimates. Seattle, Washington-based Amazon reported first-quarter profit of USD513 million or USD1.07 per share, compared with a loss of USD57 million or USD0.12 per share last year. Amazon's sales for the quarter jumped 28% to USD29.13 billion from USD22.72 billion a year ago.
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Reinsurer Swiss Re reported its first-quarter net income declined to USD1.22 billion from last year's USD1.44 billion. Earnings per share were USD3.68, compared to USD4.21 last year. Premiums earned and fee income for the company totaled USD7.94 billion, higher than USD7.56 billion in the previous year. At constant exchange rates, premiums earned and fees increased by 9%. The net operating margin in the first quarter of 2016 was 17.8%, lower than 21.2% last year.
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Friday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

AstraZeneca
Pearson
Laird
Fyffes
Rotork
Asian Total Return Investment Company
One Media IP Group
GLI Finance
Caza Oil & Gas (re delisting)
Ultra Electronics Holdings
BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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