British American Tobacco chief tops up stake

Nicando Durante, Chief Executive of British American Tobacco, has topped up his share in the FTSE 100-listed firm.

The announcement comes just one day after Credit Suisse identified the firm as being one of several which met a "new gold standard", saying they offered "better value and greater safety than sovereign debt".

"We continue to believe that a new asset allocation class develops," said analysts.

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The broker added that these stocks are relatively lower risk than governments as they have credit default swap spreads below the average of the Group of Seven (G7) countries.

Credit Suisse raised its target on BAT by 18.5p to 3,028.5p.

Durante, 54, purchased 1,421 shares at £11.52 each, giving him a total of 219,911 shares in the firm.

The share price has gained 22% on its share price over the past year.

NR