Zak Mir has picked three household names as his three portfolio picks for the New Year.
The technical analyst reckons oil major BP PLC (LON:BP.), pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline plc (LON:GSK) and UK broadcaster ITV PLC (LON:ITV) will be on the rise in 2017.
Kicking off with BP, Mir expects the “stabilised” oil price and the strong US dollar to drive the shares towards the £6 mark.
WATCH: Mir plucks for oil giant as one of top picks for 2017
“We may not believe that OPEC can hold everything together, but at least the oil price has stabilised,” Mir says in the TIP TV Proactive Investors Christmas special.
“With an extra [US interest] rate hike on the way allegedly, dollar earners like BP should do that much better as well,” he adds.
Next up on his pick list is GlaxoSmithKline plc (LON:GSK). The pharma multinational got off to a sluggish start to 2016, but the Brexit seemed to spark a mid-year revival.
WATCH: GSK looks like a 'technical buy', says technical analyst
The stock waned a little bit in the build up to the US election and hasn’t properly recovered since, which Mir believes represents a buying opportunity.
The technical analyst tells TIP TV’s Proactive Investors bulletin board: “The shares are down to £17.50 from £14.50 over the past month and I think that’s enough in a rising market.”
“Looking at the charts, we’ve got an uptrend line from the end of 2015. We’ve bounced off that at £14.50 so that looks like a technical buy signal.”
His final pick is ITV PLC (LON:ITV) which endured a difficult 2016, shedding more than a quarter of its value in the process.
WATCH: ITV a 'value-play', says Zak Mir
This makes the free-to-air broadcaster a “value play” according to Mir and even if a rumoured takeover offer doesn’t materialise in the New Year, he still thinks £2.50 is an achievable target.
“The company has been pummelled in the initial part of the year when there were fears over advertising revenues,” he explains to Proactive.
“But we’ve got a bounce towards £1.50 and this now looks like a value play whether or not you believe in the M&A story.”