Broker tips: UK banks, BT, Imagination, Gulf Keystone

Shore Capital has said that the result of the Bank of England’s (BoE) stress tests on UK banks was “a bit of a non-event” with all of the listed lenders passing as expected.

“Overall, we do not expect the results of the stress test to have a material impact on the share prices of the large UK quoted banks, with macro events (Russia, Oil Price etc) likely to remain the principal driver of market sentiment towards the sector in the near-term, we think,” said analyst Gary Greenwood.

BT’s £12.5bn offer for UK mobile network operator EE was “more expensive than expected”, according to Deutsche Bank which kept its ‘hold’ rating on the telecoms giant.

With the valuation higher than the rumoured £10.5bn-11bn price tag, analysts pointed out that BT would be paying a “hefty” 7.9 times operating profits for the company. However, while the synergies from the deal are yet unknown, the analysts predicted that they “could be substantial”.

Imagination Technologies’ shares surged on Tuesday after the chip company beat forecasts with its first-half results and impressed with its outlook, prompting positive comments from Investec.

Guidance on operating margins of 30-40% over the medium term means that Imagination could at least double operating profit by the financial year ending 2017, “and so this stock apparently has a bottom-line return story for what feels like the first time”, the broker said.

Cantor Fitzgerald has repeated its ‘buy’ rating on oil group Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) after the company moved closer to upping output at its key producing asset, Shaikan, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

“We reiterate our view that GKP is well-funded ahead of an active appraisal campaign across its portfolio and reiterate our ‘buy’ recommendation,” the broker said.