Team Internet Share News (TIG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares have opened flat to down Thursday following weak economic data from China.

Shares in Wm Morrison Supermarkets are down 8% after reporting a 13% drop in underlying profits for its recent financial year, swung to a pretax loss on huge exceptional charges, and warned on profit for the current financial year. Yet it increased its total dividend for the year by 10%.

The UK's fourth largest supermarket chain announced some GBP1 billion in property disposals, including its Kiddicare and Fresh Direct businesses, and GBP600 million of working capital savings over the next three years, and said it will invest GBP300 million this year in customer propositions, including price cuts.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.2% at 6,606.25
FTSE 250: up 0.03% at 16,332.21
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.1% at 886.52
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Hang Seng: closed down 0.7% at 21,756.08
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.1% at 14,815.98
DJIA: closed down 0.1% at 16,340.08
S&P 500: closed up 0.03% at 1,868.20
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.6658
EUR-USD: up at USD1.3948

GOLD: up at USD1,373.54 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD108.18 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

09:00 EU ECB Monthly Report
12:30 US Import And Export Price Index
12:30 US Initial Jobless Claims
12:30 US Retail Sales
14:00 US Business Inventories
14:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage change
18:00 US Monthly Budget Statement
23:50 Japan BoJ Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes
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The growth of house prices in the UK slowed in February, the latest survey from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors revealed - posting a six-month low score of +45. That was well shy of forecasts for +52, which would have been unchanged from the January reading - which was revised down from 53.
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China's industrial production and retail sales grew less than expected in the first two months of 2014, data showed. Industrial production increased 8.6% in January to February period from last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Production was forecast to grow 9.5%, following a 9.7% rise in December. Another report from the statistical office showed that retail sales grew by a double-digit 11.8% year-on-year in January to February, but below the 13.5% increase forecast by economists.
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China's Premier Li Keqiang said the government's 7.5% economic growth target for 2014 is flexible. Job creation and income generations are the key determinants of policies, he said at a press conference Thursday. "We can tolerate a bit higher or lower growth," he added. Further, Li said some loan defaults are unavoidable but overall risks are under control. China should step up supervision and handle such cases in a timely way to ensure that there are no systemic risks, he said. He observed that China's government debt to GDP is below international averages and risks are under control.
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British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday urged Israel and the Palestinians to take the "difficult" steps needed to ensure US-sponsored peace talks produce a framework agreement by the April 30 deadline. He said he wanted to use his first official visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, to back the US mediation effort. Negotiations have entered a "critical phase" after eight months of negotiations he noted.
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France's EU measure of inflation accelerated at a slightly faster-than-expected pace in February, figures from the statistical office INSEE revealed. The harmonized index of consumer prices, or HICP, rose 1.1% year-on-year, following a 0.8% increase in January. Economists had expected an inflation figure of 1%.
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EU negotiators failed to strike a deal Wednesday on a new scheme to shield taxpayers from bank bailouts, despite the clock ticking on the much-touted measure. "We are not yet there," negotiators from the European Parliament said in a joint statement, following six hours of talks with representatives from the EU's governments. "Some progress has been made," they added. "It is clear to us though that there is still much work to be done."
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Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced a headline-grabbing package of economic reforms, including a EUR10 billion cut on labour taxes, but failed to write the measures into law. Some 10 million workers - those earning up to around EUR1,500 net a month - will benefit from the tax break, effective from May, Renzi said. It would boost pay packets by about EUR1,000 per year, he added. He told reporters he was "defeated" in attempts to introduce the tax cut from April, because of technical difficulties.
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Just hours after western leaders jointly warned Moscow against the accession of Ukraine's region of Crimea, the leaders of the US and Ukraine gave an added push for dialogue. US President Barack Obama and Ukraine's interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk met Wednesday at the White House and appealed to Russia to resume dialogue in order to avoid what Obama called high "costs" if it stays on its current path in Crimea. Yatsenyuk declared that his government was "absolutely ready and open for talks with the Russian Federation" and urged Moscow to "start the dialogue" without guns and tanks.
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Floating objects photographed from a Chinese satellite at the weekend are not linked to the missing Malaysian Airlines plane, a spokeswoman for Chinese aviation authorities said. Experts had confirmed that the three large objects are not related to the plane, the Civil Aviation Authority of China spokeswoman told dpa by telephone.
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Protests against Venezuela's leftist government turned violent again Wednesday, claiming four lives in the western city of Valencia. The victims include a member of the country's national guard. The exact circumstances surrounding the deaths was unclear, news reports said.
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At least three people were killed Wednesday in an explosion believed caused by a gas leak that flattened two buildings in New York's East Harlem neighbourhood, said the city's mayor, Bill de Blasio. The blast wounded at least two dozen other people, two of them critically, news reports said. Nine occupants of the buildings were still missing, The New York Times reported.
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Former Goldman Sachs banker Fabrice Tourre was ordered Wednesday to pay USD825,000 for defrauding investors who bought sub-prime mortgage-backed securities from his bank prior to the collapse of the housing market. The former Goldman Sachs Group vice president was found liable in August for his role in a failed USD1 billion investment in a civil case brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency that oversees Wall Street. The court found that the banker with the nickname Fabulous Fab provided false marketing materials to investors. In email to his girlfriend he callously joked that he even sold the junk "widows and orphans."
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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TRADERS: HSBC RAISES CENTRICA TO 'OVERWEIGHT' ('NEUTRAL')
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Wm Morrison Supermarkets FY Pretax Loss GBP176M Vs GBP879M Profit; FY Underlying Pretax Profit Down 13% To GBP785M; Analysts Expected Underlying Pretax Profit To Be GBP783M; Selling Non-Core Assets Kiddicare, Fresh Direct; Revenues GBP17.7Bn Vs GBP18.1Bn; Like-For-Like Sales (Ex-Fuel, VAT) Down 2.8% Vs 2.1% Decline; Total Dividend Up 10% To 13.0P; Books GBP903M In Non-recurring Exceptional Costs; Says 2014/15 Underlying Profits To Be Between GBP325M To GBP375M
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Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC Chief Executive Ben van Beurden reinforced his priorities for the company in presentations to financial markets. At the 2014 management day Thursday, Beurden said that the company will drive sharper performance management of the company's portfolio than in the past, through a more detailed segmentation of the business, into performance units. Beurden noted that Shell's investment strategy recognises three distinct time horizons that can be characterized as Maintaining the existing cash "engines" businesses; Delivering near-term cash flow from "growth priorities" - deep-water and integrated gas; Identifying and maturing "future opportunities" for the longer term, including Nigeria, Iraq, Kazakhstan and global resources plays.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Salamander FY Pretax Profit Up, USD47.3M Vs USD10.8M; Revenues Up, USD482.2M Vs USD368.0M
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Bwin.party FY Pretax Profit EUR44.9M Vs EUR23.5M Loss; Revenue Down To EUR652.4M Vs EUR801.6M; Boosts FY Dividend By 5% To 1.80P Per Share Vs 1.72P
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F&C Asset Management FY Swings To GBP15.7M Pretax Profit Vs GBP3.0M Pretax Loss; Assets Under Management GBP82.1B Vs GBP95.2B; Net Revenue GBP241.2M Vs GBP243.5M; Says Cost Reductions Achieved In Line With Plan; Maintains Dividend At 3.0p
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Home Retail Group Now Expects FY Group BenchmarkProfit At Top End Of Expectations Of GBP107M To GBP111M; FY Homebase Like-For-Likes Sales Up 5.9%; FY Argos Like-For-Likes Sales Up 3.3%
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SIG FY Pretax Loss GBP14.3M Vs Pretax Profit GBP26.6M; Revenue GBP2.58B Vs GBP2.47B; Total Dividend 3.55p Vs 3.0p
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COMPANIES - ALL-SHARE AND AIM
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Trinity Mirror FY Adjusted Pretax Profit GBP101.3M, Up 2.6%; Statutory Pretax Loss GBP160.8M, Vs GBP9.7M Profit; Revenue GBP663.8M, Vs GBP706.5M; Declares No Dividend For 2013, Unchanged; Says 2014 Has Started In Line With Expectations, Year-On-Year Revenue Decline Of 3% In 1st 2 Mos
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Nichols FY Pretax Profit Up 10% To GBP22.5M Vs GBP20.5M; Sales Up 2% To GBP109.9M Vs GBP107.8M; Total Dividend Up 13% To 19.62P Vs 17.32P; Chairman: Group Is Well Positioned To Maintain Performance In 2014
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Premier African Minerals Says Assay Results Show High Grades Of Tungsten Oxide (WO3), Drilling Finds New Mineralisation
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Independent News & Media 2013 Pretax Profit From Continuing Ops GBP253.7M, Vs GBP291.3M Loss; Before-Items Pretax Profit From Continuing Ops GBP25.5M, Vs GBP10.4M; Revenue From Continuing Ops GBP322.4M, Vs GBP345.1M; Pays No 2013 Dividend, Unchanged; Says Digital Ad Revenue Up 12% In 2013, Up 15% In 2014 To Date
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MDM Engineering Receives GBP65.3M Recommended Takeover Offer From Foster Wheeler; Says Foster Wheeler Offer Is GBP1.70 Per Share In Cash; Says Has 42.4% Acceptances; Says Its Acquisition By Foster Wheeler Won't Affect Foster Wheeler-AMEC Merger
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TT Electronics FY Pretax Profit GBP18.3M Vs GBP22.0M; Revenue GBP532.2M Vs GBP476.9M; Total Dividend 5.4p Vs 5.0p; Says Strategic Developments & Strong Order Book Give It Confidence Entering 2014
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Thursday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

RENN Universal Growth Investment Trust
Innovation Group
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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