Deutsche Bank ups targets for miners, positive on Chinese growth

Analysts at Deutsche Bank hiked their target prices for a raft of miners on Thursday, despite what it termed the "clear risks and uncertainties" around Covid-19 and the outlook for global demand.

In particular, they noted how commodities had managed to dodge the "extreme" margin compression seen during previous downturns in 2008 and 2015.

As well, their expectation was that demand in China would continue to surprise to the upside, while supply issues in Latin America remained a risk.

On China, given weak domestic consumption and ongoing trade conflicts, their expectation was that Beijing would use the "tried and true" methods of stimulating the economy, that is to say, credit easing together with positive trends in construction.

Hence, they argued that iron ore prices would remain "stronger for longer" at around $90 and $85 a tonne in the back half of 2020 and 2021, respectively.

The copper market meanwhile was expected to move from deficit into balance heading into 2021, with Deutsche anticipating prices of $5,900 and $6,250 per metric tonne in the second halves of 2020 and 2021.

On the back of all of the above, Deutsche lifted its target prices for Anglo American (Buy: from 2,150.0p to 2,300.0p), for Antofagasta (Hold: from 760.0p to 860.0p), for BHP (Buy: from 1,450.0p to 1,750.0p), for Glencore (Buy: from 220.0p to 240.0p), Kaz Minerals (Hold: from 410.0p to 530.0p) and Rio Tinto (Hold: from 4,100.0p to 4,600.0p).