Sunday newspaper share tips

The Business:

BRITISH Airways has suffered from planeloads of negative publicity recently, but despite this and the soaring oil price, some analysts remain keen.

Negative sentiment has seen BA's share price nosedive from a high of 332p earlier this year to as low as 206p in the past week.

Nevertheless, during September, it attracted buy notices from the likes of Merrill Lynch and Williams de Broe, where analysts can sniff a recovery in the civil aviation industry ahead of Tuesday's traffic numbers.

JP Morgan analyst Chris Avery was generally confident, saying he expected a gradual resumption in pricing power in the crucial long haul premium markets in the autumn after premium volume recovery, resulting in corporate customers facing effective price rises, which would go straight to BA's bottom line.

Gerrard's Peter Caldwell said holding the shares needs a positive view about the industry's outlook. Investors should be aware of the high risk to the sector from terrorism and may have to be prepared to be patient for the right conditions to materialise.

The Sunday Telegraph

Homebase-to-Argos group GUS has been growing impressively and reported strong first quarter sales in July.

Analysts expect an upbeat first half pre-close update on October 14, although the exceptional 9% same-store sales growth at Argos in the first quarter is unlikely to be sustained.

The shares should have much further to go. Buy.

Shares in HBOS have jumped by 14% since July and much of the rise is down to shareholder relief at the group's decision not to buy Abbey.

The group has set itself tough growth targets and there is a fear it is vulnerable to a fall in the housing market, but this can be overstated because mortgage lending accounts for just 60% of its business, less than the 80% of some rivals.

HBOS has been aggressively growing in investments, savings and current accounts and the shares still look cheap.

Shares in public sector services group Tribal dropped by almost 24% in February after it issued a shock profits warning.

Investors were unnerved that Tribal had to walk away from a £300m NHS contract to run treatment centres and write off £3m in costs. Doubts about Tribal's future in NHS contracts have continued to depress the share price. However, this issue is thought to have been resolved and Tribal is set to win a similar £200m deal. Analysts believe this could have a transforming effect and drive profits up by half after two years. Buy.

Financial Mail

RECORD oil prices have buoyed shares of the sector's companies and investors seeking a potentially lively stock in a volatile sector might pick Imperial Energy Corporation.

The explorer and producer focuses on the former Soviet Union and joined the Alternative Investment Market at 25p-a-share in April. Its share price has soared, reaching 176.5p last month. It has an impressive board and has licences covering thousands of square miles of land, much of which is unexplored, but some of which has already been successfully drilled for oil. It's early days and it should be seen as a wildcat play.