Tanker stocks could be a safe port in a storm for global investors amid growing fears of a recession, Euronav chief executive Paddy Rodgers believes.
Rodgers says the word recession is on everybody’s mind following a tricky end to 2018 for global stocks and quipped it was a time investors hoping to be lucky rather than accurate were found out.
“This is a time for not running with the herd but for picking the right sector, and in a sector picking the right stock,” Rodgers told an Astrup Fearnley seminar in London last week.
He added: “With the oil price set the way it is, we look like we could be in a position – with the IMO regs and everything else – to be a real counter-cyclical industry."
Rodgers described tankers as "a good sector pick for making sure you dodge the trouble that is coming everybody else’s way".
While the executive said he could not tell investment managers when to buy and sell shares, he advised them to try and see signals rather than hear the noise in the market.
Shipping stocks had a difficult 2018 but have enjoyed better fortunes in the early weeks of 2019.
Clarksons Platou Securities says the 64 shipping stocks it follows are up by 6.7% on average in the year to date. Just eight of those companies have shown a decline.
