Mark Brown – Albemarle & Bond: The AIM listed pawnbroker, whose main part of the business remains issuing loans against jewellery and diamonds. The company released some encouraging results in September with revenue up by 43 per cent to £46.9m. The share price was volatile in 2008 with a low of 150p and a high of 239.5p and it currently stands at 206p. While credit remains hard to come by for many, Albemarle should benefit from this and I would expect to see an upturn in the share price this year.

Simon Flather – Redhall (230p): The specialist engineering group provides services to a number of industries, but has considerable exposure to the oil and gas and nuclear sectors, which have excellent growth prospects. Over the last few years the group has expanded through a combination of acquisition and organic growth, with its most recent acquisition being AIM listed Chieftain Group. The group has net cash of over £6m, is cash generative and has an experienced management team.

Chris Bragg – ATH Resources: The Doncaster-based coal miner has seen its share price collapse from 224p 12 months ago, underperforming in a very weak stock market. Results for the year ended September 30 were released in December and the company’s main positive, the high level of cash it generates from operations, was in evidence.

Bill Hawksley – BTG: The profitable biotech company’s revenue generators are Benefix (for haemophilia), Campath (for lymphocytic leukaemia), the Two Part Hip Cup (orthopaedics), Crofab (for snakebites), and Digifab (for cancer). Its most exciting drug is Varisolve, for treating varicose veins which is commencing Phase III trials in mid 2009. The share price is now 130p, but analysts are bullish about prospects with targets ranging from 196p to 280p.

We have gloomy economic data and continuing equity market volatility coupled with interest rates at historic lows. At some point, the equity market will settled and investors will be looking for a stable return on their capital.

Lucy Clapham believes that they should look no further than BP at 509p which has a strong balance sheet, is on a prospective PE ratio of 7.6x and offers a prospective dividend yield of 7.4 per cent which looks sustainable. The shares have outperformed the FTSE 100 index since September so wily investors should buy on a bad day.

WARNING: Opinions expressed are the writers’ judgments at the time of writing. The information does not constitute a personal recommendation and readers should seek their own professional advice as to the suitability of the investments.