Our view here at The Motley Fool is clear as can be. If you want to make monster profits with UK shares then buying after stock markets crashes is a great way to do this.
It pains writers like me to see fellow investors sit on the sidelines in fear and waste this excellent opportunity to get seriously rich.
That said, not all decisions by UK share investors have left me with my head in my hands. I’m happy to see share pickers continue to give the Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY) an extremely wide berth. The FTSE 100 bank’s 60% cheaper than it was since the start of the year. And it tipped to fresh eight-year lows at the end last week.
Lloyds keeps sinking
GDP data released last week showed the British economy continues to recover from its Covid-19 troughs. Growth came in at 6.6% in July, according to the Office for National Statistics. Still, this is suggestive of a slow recovery following the coronavirus crisis rather than the much-hoped-for V-shaped rebound. Lloyds and other cyclical UK shares clearly have a lot more to worry about.
In fact, there’s a number of obstacles in the way that could choke off any sort of steady economic recovery beyond the third quarter. Economist Anna Titareva of UBS is one of those speculating over a long, hard road ahead. She sees “three key risks” to the economy towards the end of 2020, namely:
“A slow recovery in spending in sectors involving social interaction, even before the recent spike in infection rates… a significant increase in unemployment as those who lost their jobs in recent months (but have not yet been classified as unemployed) start actively looking for work, and with the end of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) in October… and lastly, a slow recovery in business investment owing to a combination of weak demand and renewed Brexit uncertainty.”
Lloyds has already taken a whopping £3.8bn worth of impairment charges in 2020. And it looks like more hefty charges could well be coming down the line as revenues sink and bad loans rise. The prospect of ultra-low — and possibly even negative — interest rates casts a pall over this UK share beyond the short-to-medium term too.
Better UK shares to buy
Clearly investors need to be extremely careful before buying UK shares today. But they needn’t pull up the drawbridge and stop buying entirely.
I recently bought Clipper Logistics and Tritax Big Box REIT, for example. Sure, these stocks have significant exposure to the fragile UK economy. But I bought them as I’m confident booming e-commerce activity should drive profits skywards.
There’s a number of tactics UK share investors can use to build formidable stocks portfolios and enjoy exceptional returns. And The Motley Fool’s epic catalogue of special reports can put you on the right path to doing just that.
So don’t stop buying UK shares today. There are too many top-quality shares too cheap to miss at current prices.
