Electrical giant Dixons Carphone (LON:DC.) and online retailer ASOS (LON:ASOS) are among Deutsche's top picks for 2016 among European retailers - a sector it expects will bring challenges in 2016.
"We expect UK household cash flows to grow solidly, but at a slower pace than in the past two years," says analyst Warwick Okines.
"Germany also continues to look solid and France improving, at least in some categories. We are ever-closer to an interest rate rise in the UK, which typically leads to sector underperformance," he notes.
Among the top trends forecast and discussion topis are that space reduction programmes are set to accelerate in DIY and electrical stores; whether discounters can reassert themselves, and what will happen at Argos.
"We also examine the impact Amazon is having across the continent," says Okines.
ASOS is moved to 'buy' from 'hold' with a price target of 4,000p, up from 3,800p, while Dixons Carphone is rated a 'buy' and the target lifted to 575p from 525p.
Home Retail (LON:HOME) has its target clipped to 105p from 120p previously and Poundland (LON:PLND) is moved from a target of 235p from 250p.
Challenger bank Aldermore (LON:ALD) is misunderstood and still mispriced, suggests Investec at the beginning of 2016.
It rates the shares 'buy' with a target of 325p.
"Although we acknowledge that Aldermore has already rallied by 15% from its 14 Dec lows, we still expect it to achieve material outperformance against every other UK bank in our coverage during 2016," said Ian Gordon.
Its price/earnings show it trades as the cheapest UK bank – reflecting an array of political, regulatory and even credit concerns that the broker see as largely baseless, says the analyst.
"We struggle to single out a clear catalyst for an (upward) share price correction, but we do expect continued delivery of rapid loan growth to drive performance," he adds.
In small caps, China-focused gas producer Green Dragon (LON:GDG) reported today a 36% increase in gross production for 2015 compared to the previous year, underscoring its confidence for the future. The firm delivered an exit rate of 12.12 BCFPY (billion cubic feet per year) for 2015 against a target of 12 BCFPY. City broker Cantor repeated a 'buy' on the shares and targets 806p a share - over 250% higher than the current price of 225p - unchanged today. "The company’s focus remains on building production with the deployment of capital to the highest value use, primarily through investment in infrastructure to enable sales from existing drilled wells. Its gas production remains insulated from recent oil price weakness," it added.