Broker tips: Standard Chartered, GKN, St James's Place

29th Jul 2014 13:11

Standard Chartered's share price was making gains on Tuesday after analysts at JPMorgan Cazenove upgraded their rating on the stock from 'neutral' to 'overweight' following a "material underperformance" over the past year.JPMorgan said that shares of the emerging markets-focused bank have underperformed the Stoxx Europe 600 Banks index by 27% over the last 12 months. It now foresees "stabilising pressures" in a number of key operations within India, Korea and parts of Wholesale banking.Numis Securities has lifted its recommendation for aerospace and automotive engineer GKN from 'add' to 'buy', after the company "plough[ed] through the currency headwinds" in its first half."The shares have underperformed the UK Engineering sector in 2014 reflecting downgrades from currencies and Land Systems division. No further changes to forecasts today and with currencies now appearing to have stabilised attention can move back to underlying value and prospects."Shares in St James's Place (SJP) dropped on Tuesday despite the wealth manager hiking its interim dividend and giving a bullish outlook, as first-half profits came in lower than analysts' expectations.Nevertheless, brokers kept their positive recommendations on the stock, with Berenberg and Panmure Gordon continuing to recommend investors to 'buy' SJP shares, while Numis repeated its 'add' call.Panmure in particular said the outlook for wealth management is "very good, particularly for high net worth clients given the recent changes to ISAs and pension arrangements post Budget".BC