Goldman Sachs: Deutsche Bank (DB.US) has outperformed the market so far this year and downgraded its rating to “neutral”

The Zhitong Finance App learned that since the stock prices of Deutsche Bank (DB.US) and Commerzbank have outperformed the market since the beginning of the year, Goldman Sachs downgraded Deutsche Bank's rating from “buy” to “neutral”, while downgrading Commerzbank's rating from “neutral” to “sell.”

Goldman Sachs analyst Chris Hallam wrote in a report to clients: “The combination of factors such as good growth trends, more stable and steeper interest rate trends, and continued performance growth and rating increases has made the European banking sector rise by nearly 50% so far this year, far surpassing the overall European stock market.”

Overall, the analyst remains optimistic about the outlook for European banks, believing that Goldman Sachs's updated 12-month share price target is expected to rise by an average of about 10%, while some stocks rated “buy” are expected to rise by about 20%.

Stocks Hallam gave “buy” ratings include UBS Group (UBS.US), Dutch International Group (ING.US), Lloyds Bank Group (LYG.US), BNP Paribas, National Westminster Group (NWG.US), Santander (SAN.US), and HSBC Bank (HSBC.US).

Hallam said that up to now this year, the interest rate curve has become steep, while expectations for the final interest rate tend to fluctuate in the range, which makes investors more confident about the prospects for net interest income in the medium term.