Evening Standard (London): Bookies out of luck with roulette addiction figures

THE wheel of fortune looked to be turning against betting groups today amid growing prospects that highly profitable touch-screen roulette machines will face tighter Government regulations.

A report by gambling charity GamCare claims nearly a quarter of first-time callers are seeking help with addiction to fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), a figure thought likely to prompt the Government to toughen its stance.

Hilton, which owns the Ladbrokes chain, was 2p lower at 2711/4p, Stanley Leisure was 31/2p lower at 5291/2p and William Hill was off 31/2p at 525p.

That was in line with the market trend. The FTSE 100 was 19.3 points lower at 4899.6, taking a breather after last week's rally and barely stirring as the Bank of England's monetary policy committee left interest rates on hold as expected.

Also among the losers was Pearson, under pressure as the Wall Street Journal turned up the heat on the Financial Times. The WSJ plans to publish its Asian and European editions in a compact format. Pearson, which owns the FT, dipped 8p to 646p.

Hays was 21/4p weaker at 1263/4p after Merrill Lynch cut its rating on the recruitment company to sell from neutral. Although the broker noted share buyback activity is accelerating, it believes the risks are weighted to the downside because of the recent slowdown in world economic growth.

Bucking the negative trend were mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

Merrill says both are looking better value in the wake of a sell- off in the shares since mid-March. BHP rose 81/2p to 6761/2p, while Rio Tinto was 28p better at 1684p.

The latter has upped an off-market buyback of its Australian- listed shares to around Pounds 408 million.

Kingfisher, up 93/4p to 2621/2p, led the blue-chip gainers. Although the DIY group, which owns the BQ chain, has denied being in takeover talks with US-based Home Depot, investors continue to believe an offer is likely to emerge.

But losers outnumbered gainers.

British Gas group Centrica was off 1p at 2161/2p. Although its firstquarter performance was sound, its customer base continues to shrink.

Troubled supermarkets group J Sainsbury was 23/4p weaker at 2833/ 4p despite UBS raising its target to 300p from 285p.

Kingspan, an Irish-based maker of specialist products for the construction industry, was up e0.22 to e9.22 after forking out Pounds 20 million cash for Advanced Thermal Composites, a maker of thermal blocks used in UK cold-storage facilities.

Communications software company Autonomy was 11/2p lower at 205p despite news that it has extended a contract with Vodafone.

Indian state-owned oil and gas specialist ONGC has become the first company to confirm an interest in buying Pounds 1 billion, AIM- listed energy group First Calgary.

ONGC said it made two bids in the recent auction via its overseas arm, ONGC Videsh, one to acquire the whole group and another for buying an interest in its two Algerian exploration blocks. First Calgary shares rose 10p to 620p.

AIM-listed Griffin Mining rose 11/4p to 343/4p after "weathering the doom merchants and scaremongers" to post its first pre-tax profit - Pounds 211,000 for the 12 months to December against a loss of Pounds 10.6 million the year before.

Shareholders in Biocompatibles International, up 61/2p to 1971/ 2p, are to receive Pounds 12 million via a return of capital worth 29p a share after it settled litigation relating to its Isostent arm with Abbott Laboratories.