Top of the Street: Skanska, Santander, Hannover Rueck, Swiss Re, Richemont and LVMH

A round-up of notable broker activity this morning from Europe's top-ranked* analysts:

** Jefferies cuts Swedish construction company Skanska SKAb.ST to "hold" from "sell", flagging risks to commercial real estate valuations from rising bond yields

** Berenberg raises German specialty chemicals group Evonik EVKn.DE to "hold" from "buy" on likely support for the shares from BASF's BASFn.DE takeover interest

INITIATIONS AND REINSTATEMENTS

** J.P.Morgan starts Santander SAN.MC at "neutral", seeing a balanced risk-reward profile for the Spanish bank after a rapid valuation recovery

** Kepler Cheuvreux starts Hannover Rueck HNRGn.DE at "hold", citing the German reinsurer's stable earnings

** It also initiates Swiss Re SRENH.S at "reduce", citing a weaker earnings trajectory for the Swiss reinsurer

** Goldman Sachs starts Richemont CFR.S, Moncler MONC.MI and LVMH LVMH.PA at "buy", saying the luxury sector could recover in 2027 after a prolonged period of sluggish growth

** The broker also initiates Kering PRTP.PA at "neutral", as well as both Hermes HRMS.PA and Swatch UHR.S at "sell", warning of a "change in growth algorithm" for the former and limited scale that could influence margin recovery for the latter

(*Analyst rankings from Thomson Reuters StarMine. The scale is from 1-star to 5-star with 5 being the best. Analysts are ranked on earnings accuracy as well as relative performance of recommendations over trailing 12-month & 24-month periods.)