To many outsiders, Barclays may look like it’s in a tailspin, with falling profits, deep job cuts and boosted bonuses for its loss-making investment bankers. But Numis is seeing something else.
Despite reports today that investors are pushing for Barclays’ chief bonus-setter Sir John Sunderland to be sacked, Numis gave the bank a double upgrade, upping its target price and advising investors to pile in.
Mike Trippitt at Numis has taken a closer look at the bank’s numbers and sees it hitting regulators’ capital requirements faster and better than previously thought. Trippitt also thinks Barclays is well placed to take advantage of an improving economic picture across Europe.
He admits that the performance of Barclays’ investment bank is still the biggest risk for shareholders but thinks that the knockdown price the bank is trading at after last month’s results makes it worth a punt. Barclays added 4.7p to 238.4p.
The retail sector dealt a hammer blow to any hopes of reversing this week’s loses on the blue-chip index. Retailers took 6.29 points off the FTSE after catastrophic numbers from WM Morrison sent supermarkets to the bottom of the table. The blue-chip index was down 4.81 points at 6616.09.
One of the few High Street regulars to make gains was Kingfisher, owner of the B&Q and Screwfix chains, up 9.6p to 412.45p.
Analysts at Citi also advised punters to buy into bikes-to-roof-racks retailer Halfords, advertised by Olympic cyclist Victoria Pendleton, pictured, after positive feedback from its investor day. Halfords is starting to see store refurbishments translate into higher sales, although it’s keeping forecasts intact. Halfords was 1p off at 459.75p.
Australian mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton had a small fillip today. Despite weaker-than-expected industrial output data from China, the pair were boosted by strong steel production data within the numbers. Rio added 10p to 3183p while BHP gained 6p to 1799p.
On the mid-cap index, van hire company Northgate was under pressure after revealing a skin-of-the-teeth 1% increase in UK hires last year and falling numbers in Spain. The shares reversed 36.5p to 545.75p.
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At the other end of the table gaming group bwin.party made big gains after revealing it was on track for a return to growth this year. While revenue and earnings fell, 2013 also marked “a turning point as we increased our focus on regulated and to-be-regulated markets”, said chief executive Norbert Teufelberger. Investors agreed, sending bwin.party up 6.2p to 128.3p.
AIM-listed Gulf Keystone Petroleum slumped 20p to 124.25p after lowering output guidance.
