LONDON (ShareCast) - Land Securities led the blue chip fallers this morning after Credit Suisse lowered its rating on the real estate giant to ‘neutral’ from ‘outperform’ and its price target to1,529p from 1,934p.

The broker said it sees the company, whose portfolio includes the building displaying illuminated advertising at London’s Piccadilly Circus, suffering from reduced capital growth and rent.

It also cited a potentially reduced sale value for Land Securities’ property outsourcing arm LS Trillium.

Elsewhere in the UK real estate sector Credit Suisse raised its rating on Hammerson to ‘outperform’ from ‘neutral’. It said the owner of the Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre should benefit from having about 80% by value of its portfolio in real estate and possibly making some sales in France.

However, it trims its target price on Hammerson to 999p from 1,016p.

Liberty International rises to ‘neutral’ from ‘underperform’, with Credit Suisse saying it expects the Covent Garden shopping centre owner to do better than other retail investors and developers, but lowers its target price to 951p from 1,034p.

UBS has raised its rating on Smith and Nephew to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’, saying shares in the medical devices company have been oversold since the discovery of bad selling practices in an acquisition resulted in $100m in lost sales.

Smith and Nephew shares tumbled in May after it revealed the lost sales from 2007 figures. The lost sales came from Plus, a Swiss company bought last year for nearly $1bn.

However, UBS said the company was well placed to benefit from strong growth in hip resurfacing, adding that its sales of negative pressure wound therapy products had started well in the US.

It keeps its price target on the stock at 680p.

ABN Amro has downgraded its ratings on the cruise operator Carnival and the pub groups Enterprise Inns and Marston's to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’, citing fears of a serious economic downturn in 2009 and 2010.

It has also lowered its stances on the pub group JD Wetherspoon and the bookmaker Ladbrokes to ‘sell’ from ‘hold’.

However, the broker upgraded bingo hall operator Rank Group to ‘hold’ from ‘sell’ to reflect savings initiatives the company has enacted.

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