This time last year, with the FTSE 100 index hovering around the 5000 level, I was positive about the longer term outlook for UK equities, principally because company share valuation levels were very low.
Since then we have seen the index rise back up towards 6000, fuelled by monetary stimulus and central bank policy initiatives and despite reductions in the forecasts of company earnings for the current financial year and beyond. Equity valuations are therefore no longer as cheap as they were back then. I expect concerns about the eurozone debt crisis and the outlook for the global economy to remain a feature of the stock market. However, while valuations may not be as compellingly low within the equity market as a whole, I believe there is still a subset of stocks that look attractively...
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