Hong Kong-based Haitong Securities saw little evidence of eastern promise in the mining sector on Monday.
The broker published a note downgrading a trio of big players, although it kept its recommendation on a couple of others.
Haitong downgraded shares in Chilean copper miner Antofagasta plc (LON:ANTO), BHP Billiton plc (LON:BLT) and Glencore PLC (LON:GLEN) to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’.
The broker said the industry had enjoyed a strong summer but was now facing potential falls in commodity prices in the fourth quarter.
It said: “In this note we downgrade BHP, Glencore and Antofagasta following strong relative and absolute performance over recent months.
“Bulk commodity prices have held up surprisingly well, however we see more moderate demand conditions in China going into the fourth quarter, accompanied by stronger supply growth in iron ore and coal.
“The non-Brexit related strength in the sector worked well, but that catalyst appears to have played out, and we see relatively few company specific catalysts though to the end of the year.”
It left a ‘neutral’ recommendation on Anglo American plc (LON:AAL) and a ‘buy’ rating on Rio Tinto Limited (LON:RIO).
Haitong said corporate strategy across the sector remained focused on improving balance sheet metrics.
“Only Rio Tinto looks like having a balance sheet with true optionality in 2017e,” it said.
However, broker Credit Suisse was a bit more upbeat on Glencore, upgrading it to ‘outperform’.
Elsewhere, JP Morgan Cazenove upgraded shares in oil industry pump maker Weir Group PLC (LON:WEIR) to ‘overweight’ with a 1775p price target, up from 1220p.
Deutsche Bank upgraded its recommendation on WM Morrison Supermarkets PLC (LON:MRW) to 'hold' from 'sell' following last Thursday's positive first-half results.
The broker's Niamh McSherry said: "We can’t argue with cash and sales performance. We continue to see a recovery at Asda as a threat to Morrisons’ profitability but we factor in 50 basis points of pre-tax earnings before interest margin decline to reflect expected net investment."