UK stocks finally start to rise – but not as one

The UK Stockmarket recovery is finally getting some traction, says Merryn Somerset Webb. But not all stocks will recover in the same way.

People on the streets under Christmas lights in 2019
We will eat, drink and shop ourselves into a brilliant boom
(Image credit: © Getty Images)

We’ve been telling you that the UK stockmarket looks ridiculously cheap for some time now. We’re finally getting some traction. The FTSE 100 rose more than 12% in November as attention turned to the fact that we are nearer the end of the nightmare of rolling lockdowns (the first Covid-19 vaccines will roll out in the UK next week) – and possibly to the end of the relentless negativity around the type of trade deal we end up making with the EU.

Even the analysts at Goldman Sachs are coming around to our way of thinking. The future of the UK is “not all negative”, they say (which is nice). We should get a “thin” trade deal (this may be the best kind) to work with; we will recover fast post-Covid-19; and crucially our equities are cheap (on a 10%-15% price/earnings discount to most European markets), and value orientated.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.