Citi downgrades Centamin again

Centamin continued to be a "top-quality" group but investors were now paying too much for that quality, analysts at Citi said.

The Egypt-focused gold miner's share price had doubled over the first four month of 2016 and now exceeded the broker's target price, analyst Jon H. Bergtheil said in a research note sent to clients.

For that reason, Bergtheil downgraded his recommendation on the stock from 'neutral' to 'sell', close on the heels of his previous downgrade to 'neutral' just two weeks ago.

Gold production was running at an annualised clip of 500,000 ounces in the first quarter, close to the expected future maximum, the analyst said.

He also repeated the oft-mentioned complaint from some market observers that it was a one-mine shop, centred on its Sukari operations in Egypt.

Furthermore, in exchange for having waived the company's taxes in the past Cairo was set to begin a free earn-in from 2017.

Nonetheless, the analysts added that: "none of those are significant negatives compared to the implied valuation the market is offering the share currently in our opinion."