Broker tips: ITV, Randgold Resources, Fresnillo, UK banks

Nothing had changed with respect to ITV's fundamentals following Brexit despite the approximately 20% share price drop on 24 July, analysts at Liberum said, as they stood by their 'buy' recommendation and 375p target on the stock and singled it out as a 'top-pick'.

That was true even assuming a decline in advertising revenues of post-Lehman proportions, analysts Ian Whittaker, Ciaran Donnelly ad Annick Maas said in a research note sent to clients and dated 27 June.

The shares were offering a "very attractive" dividend yield to boot, the analysts said.

Furthermore, the 10.5% drop in the value of sterling against the US dollar - combined with the fall in the price of the company's stock - meant increased chances a bid from one of the major US media companies might soon surface.

Precious metals miners Randgold Resources and Fresnillo were among the few gainers in equity markets on Monday again as gold prices hit a two-year high, supported by upgrades from Goldman Sachs.

Goldman said in a note that it has lifted its gold price forecast for the second half of this year by 10% to $1,300 an ounce and for 2017/18 by 20% to $1,250 an ounce.

The bank’s commodities team argued that with the UK leaving the EU, there could be a 2% cut to the UK’s GDP and a 50 basis points cut to EU-area growth.

“Lower growth would likely see US rate expectations decline and gold outperform. Further, they argue that the uncertainty created by the vote, and the potential threat of contagion, will make commodities (including gold) trade away from their fundamentals. As a risk asset gold is likely to be supported by this.”

Banks in London took another beating on Monday as investors mulled over the implications of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, with ratings downgrades across the board.

Societe Generale was among those issuing downgrades. It cut its stance on Royal Bank of Scotland to ‘sell’ from ‘hold’ and chopped the price target to 200p from 260p saying its lower level of profitability gives it less scope to absorb bumps in the road.

It kept its ‘buy’ recommendations on Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC, but slashed the price targets. It kept its ‘hold’ recommendation and 575p price target on Standard Chartered as its focus on Asia, Africa and the Middle East means it’s more insulated from the Brexit fallout.

SocGen said the UK was still one of its preferred regions within European banks, while investment banks in Spain remain some of its least preferred.