** Exane BNP Paribas says there are glimmers of hope for the ailing chemicals sector as it projects "more of a slow trot than a galloping recovery"

** Exane sees positive signs in the start of a rate-cut induced recovery of construction activity in Europe and potentially also North America

** The broker also points to a normalization of European energy prices, with the price gap between Europe and other regions back to three-year lows

** However, it expects the demand crisis and overcapacity pressures to persist for years to come

** "Without an inflection point in sight, the most likely timeframe for recovery is H2," the boker says

** The broker says it prefers shares with European construction exposure, pricing power as well as undervalued cyclicality and cuts Evonik EVKn.DE to "neutral" from "outperform" while upgrading Wacker Chemie WCHG.DE to "neutral" from "underperform"

(Reporting by Simon Ferdinand Eibach)

((Simonferdinand.eibach@thomsonreuters.com))