Citi downgrades Oil&Gas to 'neutral' after "sharp" rally

The 10% jump in UK equities over the past few weeks has reduced the 'value' opportunity on offer, strategists at Citi said, as they downgraded their stance on the Oil&Gas space to 'neutral'.

Indeed, the combination of weakness in Sterling, a rally in commodities, and record deal flows together with some flow support would be hard to repeat, they said.

Hence, the value-case was now harder to make than at the end of March, Citi said.

Against that backdrop, the broker believed the so-called Beta trade had now mostly run its course and recommended investors focus instead on 'alpha' opportunities.