Broker snap: UBS hails 'resilient' results from StanChart

7th Aug 2013 11:21

Emerging markets-focused bank Standard Chartered was in focus on Wednesday, a day after its interim results impressed the market, with a number of brokers reacting to the figures.Numis raised its rating for the stock to 'add', while Exane BNP Paribas stayed 'neutral' and lifted its target price from 1,550p to 1,700p. Morgan Stanley also maintained a 'equalweight' stance but nudged its target slightly higher from 1,627p to 1,640p.UBS cut its target price for company's shares from 1,830p to 1,790p owing to reduced forecasts for next year due to the impact of Asian currency depreciation.However, the broker maintained its 'buy' recommendation, saying that the results were "resilient" and more or less in line with forecasts."StanChart is trading on c.1.5x tangible net asset value for a c.15% return on tangible equity and so is not discounting any growth. However, if we assume growth resumes into H2 and beyond, we would expect shares to gradually re-rate from here," UBS said.The broker highlighted StanChart's strong performance in Hong Kong, India and Africa though pointed out that Korea remained "particularly difficult".The stock was up 0.89% at 1,581.5p by 11:20 on Wednesday, extending gains made the day before.BC