Broker tips: Miners, Housebuilders, Aegis

6th Jul 2009 13:11

Mining stocks dragged the Footsie lower on Monday morning despite some positive comment from Deutsche Bank.The German bank has upgraded Latin American copper miner Antofagasta from "sell" to "hold" and bumped up the target price from 317p to 527p. Kazakhi copper miner Kazakhmys also gets the upgrade treatment, with Deutsche's rating moved to "hold" from "sell". The price target has been more than doubled from 290p to 675p.Platinum producers Lonmin and Vedanta Resources are both seen as "holds" by Deutsche Bank, which has raised its price target on the former from 1031p to 1100p and on the latter from 1003p to 1419p.RBS has taken a look at the UK housebuilding sector and reckons Bellway and Bovis Homes offer the best value in the sector after both stocks went into a slump post-April.Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has upgraded both stocks to "buy", with Bellway upgraded from "hold" and Bovis from "sell".Ahead of a trading update tomorrow Persimmon is upgraded from "sell" to "hold" but Redrow is downgraded to "sell" from "hold".RBS still foresees UK house prices trending lower, but feels that the risk of a significant overcorrection is much reduced."There have been modest positive surprises in the trading picture for the UK housebuilders in 2009, thanks to record low interest rates, unprecedented central bank/government stimulus programmes and ongoing supply restrictions," RBS said, adding that there have been signs of improved sales trends and pricing stability in the market.Panmure Gordon is also a fan of Persimmon and rates the shares a "buy" with a price target of 428p. "Although we expect UK housing market conditions to weaken once again in the coming months, we believe the Persimmon share price now fully factors in this difficult trading environment and further asset write-downs, and there is attractive upside to the shares," the broker said.Panmure Gordon has downgraded its 2009 and 2010 earnings forecasts by 6% for advertising firm Aegis but has retained its positive view of the stock.The earnings downgrades were made on the back of "a brief trading update call and revised forex assumptions."The trading update call indicated to Panmure that there has been "no material pick-up in Q2" for Aegis though the client attrition rate may have softened somewhat.The broker has a target price for Aegis of 100p and rates the stock as a "buy".