BG Group (LON:BG.) has been upgraded to buy from hold at ING, with the target price raised to 1,300p from 1,215p, while upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS. BG said it was extending its joint venture arrangements with its US shale partner EXCO Resources by paying $950m to acquire a 50% interest in EXCO's producing and non-producing assets covering 654,000 acres of the Appalachian Basin in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
ASOS (LON:ASC) cut to neutral from buy at UBS. The move comes three weeks after ASOS reported a 35% rise in sales to £206m in the year to March 31, and predicted another year of strong growth in the UK and internationally.
Aveva Group (LON:AVV) upgraded to hold from sell at Canaccord, target price raised to 1050p from 700p. Aveva reported that its full year results would be published on May 27. Last month it said those figures were likely to be marginally ahead of market forecasts.
BP (LON:BP.) upgraded to outperform from market perform at Bernstein, target price 630p. BP updated the market on its response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill by saying that it was preparing to lower a second, smaller containment dome over the main leak point. At the same time, it is hoping to attempt a "top kill" option aimed at stopping the flow of oil from the well through the blow out preventer.
Brit Insurance (LON:BRE) downgraded to underperform from neutral at BA-Merrill Lynch. Last week Brit revealed a fall in written premiums since the start of the year and predicted that there would be no premium volume growth through 2010. However it did say that the underwriting market had developed in line with expectations during the first quarter.
In other news Rank Group (LON:RNK) was downgraded to neutral from buy at Goldman Sachs, target price raised to 143p from 139p. Elsewhere, Debenhams Plc (LON:DEB) reiterated buy at FinnCap and reiterated hold at Panmure, target price stays 68p.
© 2010 Stockopedia Limited and BFNNews.com. All rights reserved
