Sunday share tips: Schroders British Opportunities Trust, Diploma

UK shares have underperformed their global peers thus far this year, but the country's businesses are not in a worse state, they are undervalued, the Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column argued.

But investors selling out has deprived companies, especially small and medium-sized ones, of the cash needed to flourish, leaving many focusing on survival instead of growth.

Schroders British Opportunities Trust, which is set to float at the end of November, aims to seize that opportunity giving "the best among these a lifeline, helping them to expand and thrive", Midas explained.

"At £1 a share, the Trust offers shareholders the chance to back British and see their stock increase materially in value too. A patriotic buy," the tipster added.

Midas also pointed out Schroders's long track record of delivering results and how many businesses had the potential to recover quickly from the pandemic, whilst many other had managed to continue growing and were set to thrive.

Indeed, the trust's managers believed this was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help British firms and boost the economy and job growth.

So much so that Schroders is putting its money where its mouth is and will invest as much as £20m of its own money in the firm.

The Sunday Times's Sabah Meddings told readers to 'hold' onto shares of Diploma, pointing to the company's strong performance throughout the pandemic and solid balance sheet to back up her recommendation.

Particularly worth noting was the firm's margins of more than 17%, thanks to the specialist nature of its wide array of businesses, which include healthcare equipment, industrial seals, gaskets, wiring and cabling.

Furthermore, despite the hit to its Life Sciences arm, as elective surgeries were postponed because of Covid-19, more recently the unit had seen a quick recovery in sales and a lot of pent-up demand remained.

Its recent acquisition of Windy City Wire had also given the company greater clout in the US and despite being financed in part with £270m of new debt, Diploma's gearing stood at just one times underlying profits.