JPMorgan puts Prudential on ‘positive catalyst watch’, shares rally

JPMorgan Cazenove placed Prudential shares on ‘positive catalyst watch’ on Friday into the first-half results in August.

It said the latest data on Mainland Chinese Visitors (MCV) to Hong Kong suggest further strong growth into 2Q23.

"Together with data just emerging on the split of MCV/domestic customer sales for Prudential in HK, we think Prudential is on track to beat consensus for new business sales/profits by 5%/13% in 2023E," JPM said.

JPM rates Prudential at ‘overweight’ with a 1,850p price target.

In the same note, the bank said it also remains positive on reinsurers and Beazley, but would look for better timing to buy at the end of the quarter.

At 0905 BST, Prudential shares were up 3.5% at 1,129p.