Several brokers took a bullish view on the outlook of UK housebuilders on Friday after a survey showed that households across the UK think that the value of their home rose in September.
This is the second consecutive monthly rise in house price sentiment following the EU referendum in June, according to the House Price Sentiment Index.
There were price target upgrades from Credit Suisse for Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV), Berkeley Group (LON:BKG), Bellway (LON:BWY), Taylor Wimpey (LON:TW.) and Persimmon (LON:PSN).
Liberum was slightly more upbeat on the latter, upgrading Persimmon to a ‘buy’ recommendation from ‘hold’.
Away from the housebuilders, Panmure Gordon took a positive view of online food delivery firm Just Eat (LON:JE.), repeating its ‘buy’ recommendation’ while upping its share price target to 734p from 641p.
Luxury fashion brand Jimmy Choo (LON:CHOO) was also in the brokers’ good books, with Bank of America Merrill Lynch moving its recommendation to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’.
In the world of the small caps, Cantor Fitzgerald repeated its ‘buy’ recommendation and 101p target price for Sound Energy PLC (LON:SOU), after it amended certain terms of its deal with PretroMaroc today.
finnCap was also positive about Constellation Healthcare Technologies, Inc.’s (LON:CHT) deal to acquire US medical billing services provider Vega, reiterating its 310p forecast for the stock.
It wasn’t quite as good a day for petroleum explorer and producer EnQuest (LON:ENQ), with Barclays Capital lowering the stock to ‘underweight’ from ‘equal weight’ and lowering its price target by 10p to 44p.