Johnson Matthey Share News (JMAT)

The chemicals sector in Europe should perform well in 2013 but will see morediverse returns as compared to last year's showing, with growth much moredependent on individual stocks and their response to a sluggish global outlook,Citi says in a note. Top picks for the year include DSM, Johnson Matthey andLinde. In agriculture, Citi likes Syngenta and Yara "We expect another year of solid performance in 2013 but we believeoutperformance will be more selectively delivered. Our 'Buy' recommendationsfocus on structural growth rather than market/cyclical plays," Citi says in anote. The bank assigns a "Sell" rating to Novozymes, Croda,Solvay and Lanxess, saying that "the former two Sells arevaluation driven; we believe these are all high quality businesses." Croda added 32 percent last year, but has already lost 3.4 percent at thebeginning of 2013. It trades at a Price to earnings (P/E) ratio of 17.1,compared to a peer median of 16.7, according to Thomson Reuters data. Novozymesstill trades at a P/E ratio of 23.9 despite losing 10 percent last year. "For Solvay and Lanxess, we expect challenging markets will impactsentiment," the bank adds. Citi downgrade Arkema to "Neutral" from "Buy," with the stock close to itstarget price, with the bank seeing limited scope for outperformance until themacro picture improves. Arkema loses 1.1 percent. Reuters messaging rm://alistair.smout.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net