BUZZ-Elementis: BofA bumps stock rating, sees margin expansion

** Elementis Plc (LSE: ELM.L - news) 's shares rise as much as 4 pct, after BofA-ML's 2-notch upgrade on the specialty chemical maker to "buy" from "underperform" following stock's underperformance vs sector

** Of the 9 analysts covering the stock, 6 have a "strong buy" or "buy" rating on it, Reuters data shows

** BofA says concern on impact of lower oil overdone, adding company seeing lower input costs which will help expand margins in its specialty products and chromium units

** They believe Elementis can comfortably pay out 60 pct of net cash in 2014 and 90 pct in 2015, indicating a dividend yield of 3.6 pct and 5.2 pct respectively vs a sector avg. of 3 pct

** Shares (Dusseldorf: DI6.DU - news) in Elementis, which makes additives used in oilfields, industrial coatings and cosmetics, features among the top UK midcap gainers

** Sector peer Synthomer Plc up 2 pct, against a 0.38 pct gain in the FTSE-350 Chemicals Index ($1 = 0.6615 pounds) (RM (LSE: RM.L - news) : esha.vaish.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)