Friday newspaper share tips: TalkTalk, British Land, Land Securities

The biggest worry for shareholders is that the operator might be under threat; a cut would see the share price collapse again and make 30% shareholder Sir Charles Dunstone irate, the tipster said.

Nonsense, the company said, aducing it generates so much cash that by the end of the 2017-18 financial year it will have the surplus funds on hand.

However, stripping out exceptionals the declared dividend of 15.87p per share is almost double earnings per share of 8.4p, although this year's payment will be at least that, it is covered by free cash flow.

More positively, growth in customers is coming back and at historical levels, with 148,000 new generating units added in the final three months of 2015.

Even so, changing hands on 18 times' earnings and sporting a chunky dividend yield of 5.8% "they look to have recovered far enough".

Commercial property developers British Land and Land Securities are 'sitting pretty' ahead of the referendum on membership of the European Union and may provide a small gain if the Leave campaign manages to come out on top.

The two FTSE-100 listed outfits were reliable stocks through the last recession and that should prove no different the next time around, as they can both sell underperforming assets and reduce their activity to offset a slowdown.

Indeed, neither of them is dramatically affected by losses or gains on home prices, it is the retailers in their shops and corporate tenants who provide them with a stable long-term rental income.

"While interest rates are low, consumer confidence should remain buoyant and large companies, particularly those which are UK-focused, should be reasonably stable."

So while there can be no denying that they are trading in difficult times, "with the EU referendum just 40 days away, and with so much of the uncertainty around the market pegged to the vote, holding on to the shares for now could result in small gains after June 23."

Questor told its readers to 'hold' both stocks adding that their next set of full-year results might beat forecasts because the cycle in their sector peaked a bit later than had been anticipated, at the start of 2015 instead of at the end of 2015.