[ET Net News Agency, 7 April 2020] Daiwa Research lifted its target price for
PetroChina (PTR)(00857) to HK$3.2 from HK$2.55 and upgraded its rating to "outperform"
from "hold".
The research house sees the possibility for a rapid de-escalation of the oil price war,
despite a delay in the OPEC+ extraordinary meeting to 9 April.
Daiwa also turned more positive on PTR's refinery and chemicals (R&C) segment since it
believes PTR's refineries need not submit all its windfall profit according to regulation,
as it is negotiating with the government to keep some of the profit.
Daiwa forecast CNY27.5bn of 2020 R&C EBIT. It also forecast PTR's marketing segment EBIT
in 2020 to turn positive at CNY4.7bn (yet still shy of CNY11.0bn in 2016), thanks to
arbitrage from a domestic demand recovery coinciding with low global oil prices. (KL)