Astrazeneca Share News (AZN)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Friday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Rolls-Royce Holdings, up 1.3%. The jet engine and power turbine company confirmed it has won its largest ever order, worth USD9.2 billion, to provide engines and support services to Emirates for 50 Airbus A380 aircraft, a deal that breaks the stranglehold that a rival engine maker had on providing engines for the airline's fleet of superjumbo aircraft. Under the deal, the British company will provide Trent 900 engines and TotalCare service support to Emirates, with the engines to power 50 Airbus A380 aircraft due to enter service in 2016.

Pearson, up 1.4%. The educational and publishing group shares are higher after closing as the biggest faller on Thursday on a Wall Street Journal report Wednesday that the Los Angeles school district is to end its use of content provided by Pearson under the Common Core Technology Project.

Whitbread, up 0.6% at 5,256.63 pence. Credit Suisse lifted its price target for the hotel and coffee-shop operator to 6,200 pence from 5,300p, reiterating its Outperform recommendation.

Astrazeneca, up 0.6%. The pharmaceutical giant said the US Food and Drug Administration has granted orphan drug designation for its selumetinib treatment for uveal melanoma, and that the latest data from its ongoing trial of AZD9291 in non-small cell lung cancer shows a delay in disease progression. Separately, Deutsche Bank lifted the company's price target to 4,850 from 4,800, keeping its Hold rating.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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GKN, down 0.5% at 368.8p. Exane BNP downgraded the engineering group to Neutral from Outperform, with a price target of 380p.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Hunting, up 5.8% at 636.00p. Goldman Sachs upgraded the energy services company to Conviction Buy from Buy, lifting its price target to 709p from 622p.

Qinetiq Group, up 4.8% at 204.5p. Barclays upgraded the defence services company to Overweight from Equal Weight, lifting its price target to 220p from 210p, while Goldman Sachs has slightly raised the company's price target to 208p from 204, reiterating its Hold recommendation.

Debenhams, up 4.3% at 88.57p, having hit a new 16-month high of 89.00p. Several brokers updated their stances on the department store. Citigroup upgraded Debenhams to Buy from Neutral, lifting its price target to 95p from 75p, while SocGen raised the company's price target to 80p from 67p, keeping its Hold rating. Meanwhile, UBS raised its price target to 90p from 85p, reiterating its Buy recommendation. The upgrades come after Debenhams reported a rise in profit for the first half of its financial year, with its shares touching a 15-month high Thursday.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Indivior, down 2.0% at 208.90p. Deutsche Bank downgraded the former pharmaceutical division of Reckitt Benckiser to Hold from Buy, but lifted its price target to 212p from 180p.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Applied Graphene Materials, up 16%. The speciality graphene materials provider said it has received positive preliminary results from independent performance testing conducted on graphene-reinforced polyurethane coatings using graphene it produced. The initial results demonstrate low loading levels of its graphene nanoplatelets substantially enhance the scratch resistance and ultimate tensile strength of a polyurethane clearcoat with minimal damage to transparency or colour, it said.

Zamano, up 10%. The Irish mobile payments and marketing company said it is now an approved direct carrier billing partner for Three Ireland. It said the connection covers all of Three's customers including those obtained during the recent acquisition of O2. Three represents approximately 36% of the mobile market in Ireland according to latest figures, it said.

By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com

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