Lonmin Share News (LMI)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in London have opened slightly higher Monday, adding to Friday's gains from UK election euphoria.

China's central bank on Sunday cut interest rates for the third time in six months to reverse an economic slowdown. Chinese producer prices were reported to have fallen in April, while consumer price inflation remained weak.

A Bank of England interest rate decision is due at 1200 BST.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.2% at 7,059.65
FTSE 250: flat at 17,942.26
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.3% at 755.55
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Hang Seng: up 0.7% at 27,767.37
Nikkei 225: closed up 1.3% at 19,620.91
DJIA: closed up 1.5% at 18,191.11
S&P 500: closed up 1.4% at 2,116.10
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GBP: down at USD1.5413
EUR: down at USD1.1175

GOLD: down at USD1,184.62 per ounce
OIL (Brent): flat at USD65.42 a barrel

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

EU Eurogroup meeting
12:00 UK BoE Interest Rate Decision and Asset Purchase Facility
15:00 US Labor Market Conditions Index
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China's central bank on Sunday cut interest rates for the third time in six months to reverse an economic slowdown. The People's Bank of China said on its website it would lower its benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points to 5.1%. The measure takes effect on Monday. The bank will also cut its one-year benchmark deposit rates by the same amount to 2.25%. The central bank last cut interest rates on February 28, lowering the one-year benchmark lending rates by 25 basis points to 5.35% and cutting the deposit rates by the same amount to 2.5%.
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China's producer price index fell 4.6% year-on-year in April, its 38th straight month of decline, state-run media reported. "Lower fuel prices and coal production costs mainly caused the acceleration in the month-on-month PPI drop," Yu Qiumei, a senior statistician at the National Bureau of Statistics told the Xinhua news agency. Meanwhile, China's consumer price index rose to 1.5% year-on-year in April from 1.4% in March, state media reported. China has set an annual inflation target at about 3%. The value of China's foreign trade dropped more than 10% in April, according to official figures, state media reported. Foreign trade fell 10.9% to CNY1.96 trillion compared to a year earlier, after discounting seasonal factors, Xinhua reported.
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The growth in the Irish construction sector accelerated sharply in April, as activity, new orders and employment rose at sharper rates, survey figures from Markit Economics showed. The Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers' Index rose notably to 57.2 in April from 52.9 in the previous month. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Moscow that Ukraine's territorial integrity must be restored, and that her country would continue to work with Russia to meet that goal. Merkel made the comments at a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin after their meeting in the Kremlin. She emphasized that Germany is "working with Russia, not against it." Merkel arrived in Moscow on Sunday to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. She and Putin laid a wreath at a memorial for Soviet soldiers killed during World War II, and then they discussed bilateral ties and collaboration on finding a solution to the violent conflict in Ukraine.
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French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said only A400M military transport flights with extreme importance were being flown in the wake of a crash of the aircraft model during testing in Spain on Saturday. "Only the flights with high operational priority will be authorized," Le Drian said after a meeting of defence ministers in northern France. Four of the six Spanish crew members were killed in the crash, said the aircraft manufacturer Airbus. The model was part of the A400 series that was destined for Turkey, but it was still in testing phases when it crashed.
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Conservative challenger candidate Andrzej Duda leads incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski in Poland's presidential election, but failed to secure enough votes to avoid a runoff election. Duda of the conservative Law and Justice party had garnered 34.8% of the vote, compared to 32.2% for Komorowski, who had been considered the favourite going into the race. A second round of voting is to take place in two weeks.
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South Korea gave warning after North Korea test-fired land and submarine-based missiles over the weekend, a news report said. North Korea's military fired three anti-ship missiles from its east coast on Saturday, South Korea's Defence Ministry said, hours after North Korean media reported the successful test-firing of a submarine-based ballistic missile. Seoul would "mercilessly deal with any provocations," Defence Minister Han Min Koo said Monday, according to Yonhap News Agency. The communist regime in Pyongyang has tested missiles several times this year, but always fired from land.
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A strong typhoon barrelled into the north-eastern Philippines, ripping off roofs and forcing thousands of people to flee their homes, disaster relief officials said. Typhoon Noul packed maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 220 kph as it made landfall over the northeastern province of Cagayan, the weather bureau said.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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SOCGEN CUTS ABERDEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT TO 'HOLD' ('BUY') - TARGET 485 (490) PENCE
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Numis Downgrades Diploma To Hold From Add, Price Target At 843p
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Numis Downgrades Hunting To Hold From Buy, Price Target At 554p
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CITIGROUP RAISES BODYCOTE TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 825 (750) PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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The Conservative Party is to accelerate the sale of the UK government's holdings in Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland Group, according to the Sunday Times. The newspaper report said government officials are looking into making an early sale of shares in RBS at a loss to taxpayers, while plans for a GBP4 billion retail sale of Lloyds shares as part of the disposal of the remaining stake in Lloyds also are under examination.
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Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland Group are set to pay about GBP3 billion in fines over the foreign exchange manipulation scandal, according to the Sunday Times in a report that said the banks are "preparing to plead" guilty to currency rigging. According to the Sunday Times, the fines and guilty please will follow later this week, marking an end into authorities' investigations.
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Nedbank, the South African bank 52%-owned by financial services group Old Mutual, reported higher first-quarter net interest income and non-interest revenue as it deals with tough conditions in South Africa. In a statement, Nedbank said its net interest income increased to ZAR5.81 billion in the three months ended March 31, compared with ZAR5.57 billion in the corresponding quarter of the prior year. Its net interest margin deteriorated to 3.41% from 3.57%.
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New York-listed consumer research company Nielsen Holdings is poised to join the GBP2 billion auction for Tesco's Dunnhumby, the Sunday Times reported. Tesco Chief Executive Dave Lewis hired Goldman Sachs to sell the business, which operates Tesco's clubcard loyalty scheme. Nielsen is understood to have expressed an interest in Dunnhumby, but has not yet tabled an offer, the Sunday Times said.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Lonmin said its pretax loss for the first half of the year narrowed despite revenue being hurt by lower commodity prices, as the company focuses on reducing expenditure and costs in preparation for lower prices for a minimum of two years. The FTSE 250 miner reported a pretax loss of USD118 million in the six months ended March 31, narrower than the USD278 million loss in the first half of the 2014 financial year, as a decline in revenue was offset by fewer impairments. In a separate statement, Lonmin said refined platinum production in the second quarter was 122,480 ounces whilst sales came to 119,051 ounces.
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Spirax-Sarco Engineering said its organic revenue was up 4% in the first four months of 2015, and its operating profit was also higher even though exchange rate movements reduced its revenue earned overseas by 1.8% when translated into sterling. In a statement ahead of the company's annual general meeting, the engineer said the normal seasonal growth in its order book hadn't been as strong in the early months of this year compared with the strong growth it saw early in 2015.
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Funeral services company Dignity said revenue rose by almost a quarter in the first three months of its financial year as it handled 19% more deaths than in the year-earlier period, although it expects the spike to normalise over the course of the year as a whole. The company said it made an operating profit, excluding profit or loss on sales of fixed assets and exceptional items, of GBP35.8 million in the 13 weeks to March 27, up from GBP25.8 million in the 13 weeks to March 28, 2014, as revenue rose to GBP85.5 million from GBP69.1 million as it handled 175,000 deaths, up from 147,000.
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Events and marketing services company UBM said it has appointed Marina Wyatt, currently chief financial officer of navigation products provider TomTom as its new chief financial officer from September 2. She will succeed Robert Gray, who will remain in his position until her appointment.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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HSS Hire Group, a tool and equipment hire company, said it has acquired heating, ventilation and air-conditioning hire company All Seasons Hire Ltd for GBP11.4 million in cash. In a statement, HSS Hire said that acquiring All Seasons, which is headquartered in Andover, Hampshire, with satellite operations in Darford and Birmingham, will bolster earnings inside the current financial year.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Visa Inc, the world's largest payment card processor, is in preliminary talks to buy former subsidiary Visa Europe Ltd in a deal that may be valued at as much as USD20 billion, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter. The reported noted that the talks, which began when Visa approached Visa Europe, are at an early stage and could fall apart if the two sides can't agree on a price. The range being discussed is USD15 billion to USD20 billion. Both companies are working with advisers, the report said.
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Barclays‎, Nationwide, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland Group are set to benefit by more than GBP4 billion in the event of a takeover of Visa Europe by Visa Inc, according to Sky News. Citing one source, the report said that the UK banks have a shareholding in Visa Europe of between 25% and 30%. Barclays has an economic interest of "just under" 10% in Visa Europe, the report said.
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Franco-Dutch carrier Air France-KLM reported that its total passenger traffic in the month of April, measured in terms of revenue passenger-kilometers, edged down 0.4% to 19.155 billion from 19.226 billion in the previous year. Load factor declined 0.6% to 84.2% from last year's 84.8%. The airline carried 6.529 million passengers in the month, down 2% from last year's 6.662 million passengers.
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Monday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Spirax-Sarco
European Real Estate
Mirland Development
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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