Standard Chartered share price: Lender replaces BNP Paribas in Citi’s Focus list

Citi has added Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) to its Focus list, removing French lender BNP Paribas. The move is a boost for the Asia-focused lender whose shares were sold off yesterday even as the company posted a surge in profits for the third quarter.

Standard Chartered’s share price has jumped in today’s session, having gained 1.94 percent to 718.70p as of 14:49 GMT, outperforming the benchmark FTSE 100 index, which currently stands 0.60 percent higher at 7,533.09 points. The group’s shares have added more than eight percent to their value in the year-to-date, as compared with an over five-percent rise in the Footsie.

Focus list

Citi added StanChart to its focus list today, and WebFG News quoted the broker as telling clients that weakness in the group’s share price following its third quarter numbers represented ‘an attractive buying opportunity’. The analysts pointed to various potential catalysts for the stock, including better macroeconomic conditions in developed Asian markets, particularly in Hong Kong and Singapore, local market growth in line with peers, as well as improving net interest margins.

Citi further noted that StanChart had relatively high sensitivity to the direction of interest rates in the US and expects the blue-chip lender’s dividend yield to become the highest of its Asian and Emerging Market peers by 2019.

Other analysts on StanChart

Others, however, have been less upbeat on the Asia-focused lender, with Barclays reiterating its ‘underweight’ stance on the stock today, without specifying a price target on the shares. HSBC, which sees the company as a ‘reduce,’ meanwhile lifted its valuation on the group from 620p to 630p. According to MarketBeat, StanChart currently has a consensus ‘hold’ rating and an average price target of 692.56p. 

As of 15:09 GMT, Thursday, 02 November, Standard Chartered PLC share price is 717.80p.