Investment opportunities exist in all kinds of terrain, says SWIP

The bumpy ride in the UK market may last well into 2009 says Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP). However, investment opportunities exist in all kinds of terrain and SWIP continues to search out long term opportunities.

SWIP remains cautious on the UK market in the early months of 2009 in the belief that many companies will be forced to come to the market to raise fresh capital. Given the scale of the re-equitisation involved, investors will find themselves having to sell existing holdings in order to participate in these new issues, providing a brake on the progress of the wider market.

Robert Waugh, Head of UK Equities, at SWIP comments: "The economic backdrop remains very difficult. Unemployment looks set to rise, with few areas in the economy growing fast enough to take up the slack resulting from job losses across a broad range of industries. The huge increase in government borrowing as the authorities attempt to spend their way out of the current turmoil should reduce the severity of the downturn, but may well be at the expense of recovery when it comes."

SWIP's UK equities team has already built in the economic downturn into its forecasts for UK companies and as a result is beginning to see long term value.

Waugh adds: "We have generally positioned our funds with greater exposure to the staples, since their earnings are less at risk from a global economic downturn and may even grow. In tandem, we have limited our exposure to the more economically sensitive stocks and continue to avoid companies burdened with significant amounts of debt. However, with forecasts that already reflect a major economic downturn, we are beginning to see long term value in UK companies.

"Given the speed of the share price declines amongst the economically sensitive stocks, recovery, when it arrives, may prove to be just as rapid. The timing of this recovery will be fundamental to performance of the UK market in 2009."