august pivots 2, page-5

sorry guys chart did not copy but Atlas is in number 2 position with 21 buys!

Source: The Australian
FORTESCUE Metals Group, Atlas Iron, BHP Billiton, Boart Longyear and Flight Centre have been named among Australia's most recommended stocks by 23 leading stockbrokers.

The results were revealed in a new report by the Inside Trader, a firm that tracks directors' share-trading activity.

Each month, it analyses about 3000 recommendations from 23 brokers and about 400 leading stocks.

Of the top 30 stocks recommended, about 15 were resource and mining stocks.

The strong dominance of mining stocks comes despite comments from a number of equity commentators and fund managers expressing concerns about the Australian resources sector amid fears of a China slowdown.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management head of Australian equities Dion Hershan says: "We continue to have a cautious stance on resources. We have reservations around demand trends both into China and outside of China, and for some commodities in particular we have concerns that there will be a lot of supply growth and that will influence prices, most notably in the iron ore market.


"Resource stocks and commodity prices have sold off in anticipation of some of these trends, but we still don't feel that it represents the most attractive segment in the market."

He is not alone.

Avoca Investment Management managing director John Campbell is surprised that resource stocks are the most recommended.

He says Australian equities are very attractive but the resource side of the equation remains "troubling for us".

"We feel, with China maturing, that the spikes in commodity prices that we saw in years gone by (are not) going to be around going forward and that we are in for a much more normalised commodity price environment," Campbell says.

"It will be a more difficult environment for resource companies."

But taking a contrarian view is Bell Potter Wholesale managing director Charlie Aitken.

The outspoken stockbroker last week criticised the media for its attack on "all things China facing, all things iron ore and BHP itself".

"It's a textbook corpse kick," Aitken says. "But if you kick a corpse, you want to make sure it hasn't got a pulse."

He is recommending that Bell Potter clients first "buy some BHP, secondly buy a pure play iron ore stock, and thirdly buy a decent bottle of red to open in three years' time when you've made plenty of money".

Among the non-resource stocks to make the top 30 list were Seek, Flight Centre, National Australia Bank, Orica, Computershare, ANZ, Suncorp, Primary Healthcare, Lend Lease and Seven West Media.

The report also splinters the research into other categories such as "increased in popularity".

"These are stocks where the analysts have upgraded their recommendation from the previous month," Inside Trader says.

Among the top 10 stocks in that category are Hastings Diversified Utilities Fund, Seymour Whyte, Focus Minerals, Seven West Media, Billabong International, Myer Holdings and Infigen Energy.

The report also runs a "decreased in popularity" category, which shows the stocks where analysts downgraded their recommendations from the previous month.

At the top of that list are Grange Resources, Vocus Communications, Intrepid Mines, ALE Property Group, UXC, Red Fork Energy, Patties Food and Hillgrove Resources.