Citi upgrades Rio Tinto to 'buy'

Citi upgraded Rio Tinto on Thursday to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ as it took a look at the metals and mining sector.

"Hopes for stimulus from China and news headlines about potential measures to support the property sector have catalysed an upward move in steel and iron ore over the past week," the bank said.

"Citi’s commodities team thinks the recent strength is unlikely to be sustained as effective stimulus measures will be difficult to achieve.

"Citi maintains its 0-3m point price target unchanged at US$100/t while downgrading our 6-12mth price to $90 (previous $105/t)."

The bank trimmed its CY23/24 benchmark iron ore price forecasts from $110/$105 to $105/$95 per tonne.

"All that said, we see clear upside risks regarding potential China stimulus and there has been 3 months of underperformance by the iron ore names."