Deutsche has Rio Tinto PLC and Acacia Mining PLC as top pick miners

2016-04-05 07:03:38

(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors - UK) Proactive Investors Mon

In European miners Deutsche's top picks are gold producer Acacia Mining (LON:ACAA) and copper giantRio Tinto (LON:RIO).

It previews first quarter production stats from the miners today and says it reckons base metal output will be lower apart from nickel which it reckons will rise 7% compared to the same quarter last year.

This is due to among others BHP's Nickel West bouncing back from a weak December quarter

"As a key by-product of zinc and copper mines silver production is likely to be down for another quarter by 1%" it said.

The broker also expects gold to recover from the seasonal weakness in the fourth quarter and expects PGM (platinum group metal) output to recover from the safety interruptions in the fourth quarter.

Rio and Acacia are rated 'buy'. Anglo American and BHP Billiton are rated 'hold'. Fresnillo is 'sell' and Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) is also a 'hold'.

Elsewhere UK High Street bellwether Marks &Spencer (LON:MKS) gets a shout-out from Peel Hunt who lifts the shares to a 'buy' from ' hold' previously and also lifts the target price to 450p from 400p.

Engineer Weir Group (LON:WEIR) is also the subject of an upgrade from Japanese house Nomura which lifts the shares to 'buy' from 'neutral' and moves the target price to 1190p from 1129p.

On the downgrade side car insurer Admiral Group (LON:ADM) gets bumped down to 'underperform' from 'neutral'. But the target price is lifted to 1740p from 1550p previously. The current price of the shares is 1084p.

In smaller caps coloured gems specialist Gemfields PLC (LON:GEM) achieved a new 'per carat' record price for higher quality sales at its recent auction in Lusaka Zambia.

The auction raked in $33.1mln at an average of $70.68 per carat and of the 558k carats offered for sale 469k carats were sold 84% of the total up for sale.

Broker Panmure said: "We continue to believe Gemfields offers an unrivalled proposition for investors providing exposure to a robust precious stone industry through a world class emerald mining operation an emerging ruby operation and exposure to the luxury goods segment via the Company's Faberge brand."

It repeated a 'buy' rating and 64p target price - a good distance from the current price of around 45p a pop.

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