'HSBC built for times like this', BofA says, stays at 'buy'

Analysts at Bank of America reiterated their 'buy' recommendation on shares of HSBC telling clients that the lender was "built for times like these".

In particular, they highlighted the lender's $327bn of cash on hand and $184bn of securities with a maturity of under a year, which combined were 4.3 times the bonds it held with a maturity of over five years.

They also noted how the liquidity coverage ratios of its key operating entities were between 143-247%.

"We see the defining characteristic of HSBC as the quality of its deposit base, built to withstand stress when there was no central bank backstop in Hong Kong or many Asian markets for most of its history," they said.

If HSBC was rate sensitive it was due precisely to its "high-quality stable deposit base" and not because of its "reaching for duration".

The analysts had a target price of 735p on the lender's shares.