PAP.L Share News (PAP)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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International Consolidated Airlines Group, up 1.7%. Barclays said the British Airways and Iberia owner is its top European transport sector pick, saying it can sustainably beat its mid-cycle targets. It reinstated coverage on the airline with an Overweight rating and 750 pence price target.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Standard Chartered, down 2.6%. The emerging markets-focused bank, which has significant Asian operations, was trading lower after Chinese stocks closed lower again Wednesday despite the interest rate cut by the country's central bank designed to stem some of the negative sentiment on the China's deteriorating economic outlook.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Betfair Group, up 18%. The online gaming company said it has reached an agreement in principle to merge with Irish rival Paddy Power. Under the terms of the merger, Paddy Power shareholders would own 52% of the combined company, with the remaining 48% owned by Betfair shareholders. Immediately prior to completion of the deal, Paddy Power's shareholders would get an EUR80 million special dividend. Betfair also posted stronger first quarter revenue and higher earnings. Paddy Power shares also got an 18% boost from the merger.

OneSavings Bank, up 7.5%. The bank reported an 88% surge in profit in the first half, driven up by higher-margin new lending and lower costs of funding. The specialist lender, which offers residential, buy-to-let and commercial mortgages, secured loans and development finance, said pretax profit increased to GBP46.6 million in the six months ended June 30, compared with GBP24.8 million in the corresponding half the prior year.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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William Hill, down 4.2%, Ladbrokes, down 3.8%. The planned merger between Paddy Power and Betfair looks to have harmed sentiment towards the rival bookmakers, given the deal will create a powerful new online gambling competitor. Ladbrokes and William Hill have both been struggling to grow their online gaming operations and have been seeking scale in order to better invest in online channels, with Ladbrokes set to merge with Gala Coral.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - WINNERS
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Asiamet Resources, up 35%. The miner said it has identified a high-grade copper zone at the Beruang Kanan copper project in Indonesia. The drilling undertaken at the site has identified a high trade copper zone within the current resource area which has the potential to significantly boost the project economics, the company said. Follow-up drilling has now started in the immediate area of the high-grade intersections in order to increase the drill density and boost resource confidence.

Herencia Resources, up 9.6%. The miner said it has found further high-grade copper mineralisation at the Picachos project in Chile. Further surface sampling work carried out at the project identified high-grade copper mineralisation in a number of new areas immediately adjacent to the proposed open pit mining operations at the project.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - LOSERS
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Marechale Capital, down 53%. The energy sector investor said said that Kettering Borough Council has granted planning permission for Northfield UK Solar Ltd's 49.9 megawatt solar scheme at Desborough, but said there remains significant risks involved in the company adding value to its investment. Marechale has a 26% equity stake in Northfield and the solar scheme. "While the directors believe there is potentially significant additional value in Marechale Capital's investments, including Northfield, which may be realised above their book value there are significant risks involved in achieving this," the company said.

HSS Hire, down 35%. The tool and equipment hire company said it anticipates its full-year earnings will come in below market expectations following continued soft trading in the second half so far, compounding the widened pretax loss the group posted for the first half. The group expects to continue to grow its market share in the second half, but said that while trading improved in July, some further softness has been seen in August. It now anticipates its full year earnings to be below market expectations and said it is assessing further cost saving opportunities through a refinancing which would take place in 2016. HSS said its pretax loss for the half year to June 27 was GBP14.1 million, widened from the GBP11.1 million, even as lower financing costs in the half helped to mitigate some of the decline.

Mobile Streams, down 34%. The mobile media company warned that its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the year ended June 30 will be "around breakeven", on revenue "materially lower than current market expectations". It attributed this to investment in new products such as ad-funded services and moving into India and Nigeria, as well as ongoing challenges in its core market of Argentina. Mobile Streams has faced challenging conditions in its core business in Argentine following the sudden devaluation of the Argentinian peso in January 2014, and has been taking measures to counteract this, such as launching products in new markets.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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