When it comes to share tipping, a year can sometimes feel like an exceptionally long time. Certainly at the start of 2007, few predicted how defensive investors would need to be to emerged unscathed from the crisis that was to unfold during the following twelve months. Likewise, the swing in sentiment following the market trough in 2009, as investors made their dash for trash, meant a massive overhaul to the investment trends that prevailed at the start of that year.
With many markets ending 2013 near record highs and fears mounting among strategists that valuations have become overstretched, the coming year clearly has the potential to feel like a particularly long one. The key “macro” risk as we start 2014 is the question of how governments will unwind the exceptionally loose monetary policies of recent years. However, the political pressure will be to do too little, rather than too much, to curb such policies. So worries about the impact of tapering in 2014 may ultimately prove overblown.
As such, two of our tips of the year, HSBC and Anglo American, fly in the face of these tapering fears. Meanwhile, it is the strength of the domestic economy that is likely to be a key determinant for other tips, notably Wincanton and Hays. However, a number of the stocks we have selected for 2014 are focused on markets with their own particular dynamics, such as Novo Nordisk and Utilitywise. But hopefully we’ve spread the risks broadly enough to provide the right quantities of daring and diversity to outperform the market once again this year, providing a range of ideas to suit different investing styles, including alternatives in each category you may wish to research further.
Good luck and happy investing!
