Barclays Share News (BARC)

An improving picture of the housing market should start to rub off on UK banks, according to Nomura, which is viewing the the sector with 'guarded optimism'.Nomura has upgraded its rating for Lloyds from 'reduce' to 'neutral', saying that the company is now its top pick in the domestic UK banking sector "as the optimism about the housing market, along with the capital generation it has achieved recently, should help it maintain recent outperformance". Global peers HSBC and Standard Chartered are both rated 'buy', while 'reduce' ratings have been maintained for Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland.Jefferies has raised its rating for online fashion retailer ASOS from 'underperform' to 'buy' and more than doubled its target price, reversing an 'ill-judged' downgrade made earlier in the year.The broker's ratings cut back in January was based on gross margin compression and the thought that the withdrawal of long-standing operating margin guidance would weigh on the stock. "It didn't. Burgeoning revenue growth carried the story and the resultant outperformance made for a poor call," admitted analyst David Reynolds. Since the start of 2013, the stock has surged by over 50%.Panmure Gordon has kept its 'buy' rating and 1,013p target price for UK homewares retailer Dunelm after the company's fourth-quarter trading statement came in much better than expected."We think that Dunelm's valuation premium to the (very diversified) UK General Retail sector average can be extended as growth continues apace. In addition, we see further upside risk to our forecasts," the broker said on Thursday morning.