Shares in WPP rise 2.6 percent to the top of Britain's FTSE 100, with traders citing BofA Merrill Lynch adding the advertising firm toits most wanted list as the catalyst for the share price move.
"WPP offers an attractive combination of value & growth and therefore shouldperform well under the boom phase of the style cycle," BofA ML says in a note,adding WPP's discount to peers is unjustified.
WPP trades on a forward 12-month price-to-earnings (PE) multiple of 12.5times, which compares to Publicis on 14.2 times and the media sectoron 12.9 times, according to Thomson Reuters data.
"We believe (the discount)is unjustified given WPP is overweight emergingmarkets and digital, and that WPP is attractive versus quality consumer staplestrading on close to 20 times PE," it says.
WPP's shares have fallen around 5 percent in the last 5 trading days,underperforming a 3 percent drop on the FTSE 100.
"As far as our clients are concerned, in the last hour it's been prettysolid buying, and over the last day, there's been a shift away from what hadbeen a slightly negative trading stance towards them," Alastair McCaig, analystat IG Index, says.
Reuters messaging rm://david.brett.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net