Buy
Yue Yuen Industrial
BNP Paribas Peregrine has upgraded athletic and casual footwear supplier Yue Yuen from 'market perform' to 'outperform'. The upgrade was prompted by rising orders from Yue Yuen's largest customer Nike and cost savings stemming from the firm's acquisition of upstream businesses. BNP said Nike's retail orders from the United States had declined 8 per cent year on year for the quarter to November 30 but its orders for Asia-Pacific had increased 14 per cent. BNP projects Yue Yuen's earning per share will be HK$1.39 this year. The brokerage has a price target of $18 on the firm.
Hold
China Mobile (HK)
DBS Vickers Securities said it was reviewing its 'neutral' stance on China Mobile for a possible upgrade as fears of rising competition in the mobile sector had pushed down the stock to an 'undemanding valuation'. DBS projects China Mobile's net profit for last year would rise 16.9 per cent to 32.7 billion yuan (about HK$30.64 billion). The growth should be driven by the first contribution from eight newly acquired provincial networks and organic growth of subscribers. However, DBS estimated that the telecoms firm would declare its maiden dividend of 34 fen, which is at the low end of market expectations.
