Broker tips: StanChart, BP, Tullow Oil

The largest UK banks face several further operational headwinds which the market may not be fully factoring in yet, analysts believe.

Foremost among those is the 2018 implementation of the IFRS9 accounting standard regarding provisions, which will be half again as high as IAS39. That will reduce those lenders’ Tier1 equity ratios by 70 basis points. On average, their tangible net asset values will be cut by 6%, although StanChart and Lloyds Banking Group will be the most affected, analysts at Exane BNP Paribas said.

Near-term dividend expectations may also be impacted, the analyst team led by Jonathan Pierce explained in a research note sent to clients.

On the basis of all of the above, Exane downgraded shares of Barclays to underperform from neutral and those of Lloyds to neutral from outperform. Their target prices were cut by 10% and 9% to 260p and 82p, respectively.

StanChart on the other hand was kept at underperform, although the target price on its stock was slashed by 22% to 700p.

HSBC and RBS were kept at neutral. The target on the stock of the former was lowered 11% to 540p while that for the latter was kept at 360p.

Bernstein upgraded oil giant BP to ‘outperform’ from ‘market perform’ and kept the price target unchanged at 450p.

It said that given recent relative share price performance, it sees attractive upside of more than 30%.

It noted that BP has underperformed the European oil and gas sector by 5% and the European market and major peers by 10% in the third quarter so far, which seems extreme.

“Our recent analysis of BP's ability to weather really tough oil price storms e.g. 1987-1997 highlighted their resilience and will prove valuable in the current storm many investors expect,” said Bernstein.

Shares in Tullow Oil were under pressure after HSBC slashed its price target on the stock to 310p from 514p to reflect the bank’s lowered oil price assumptions.

On 31 August, HSBC cut its Brent price assumption to $55.4 a barrel for 2015 from $62.5. For 2016-2018, the bank now expects an annual progression of $60/70/80 a barrel versus $75/90/105 previously.

Nevertheless, it said it continues to see significant upside in Tullow. It noted that the TEN project in Ghana is now more than 65% complete and remains on track for first oil mid-2016.

The bank added that Tullow has acted decisively to reduce its cash burn.

HSBC rated the stock at ‘buy’.