International inventory markets have taken successful this yr because of financial uncertainty. Right here within the UK, the FTSE 100 index is presently about 8% off its highs.

Now it’s typically stated that the important thing to being profitable from shares in the long term is to purchase low and promote excessive. With that in thoughts, is now a very good time to think about investing in Footsie shares?

In current market meltdowns, the FTSE 100’s typically recovered shortly (a ‘V-shaped’ restoration). Nevertheless, a fast rebound isn’t a positive factor this time round.

In the end, Donald Trump’s tariffs are creating headwinds for a lot of UK-listed companies. Diageo, Rolls-Royce, and JD Sports activities Trend are some examples right here – all might be taking a look at successful to their earnings.

On prime of this, there’s now an honest likelihood that the worldwide financial system will expertise a recession. This might affect a variety of Footsie companies, from international banks like HSBC and Barclays to grease majors comparable to BP and Shell.

On account of these two elements, we may probably see the FTSE 100 go decrease earlier than it climbs greater.

Threat administration

Given the murky backdrop, I don’t suppose it’s clever to place a ton of cash into FTSE shares right now. As a substitute, I’d advocate drip feeding capital into the market little by little (placing some cash on this month, some subsequent month, and so forth).

That means, if UK shares do finish up falling additional, you possibly can nonetheless probably take benefit. It may be irritating to see shares fall to rock-bottom ranges and don’t have any cash left to speculate.

A FTSE inventory to think about

Drip feeding capital into the market over time isn’t the one solution to handle threat nonetheless. One other technique is to give attention to high-quality companies with comparatively steady earnings and money flows.

These kind of firms are typically extra resilient than others. They usually can supply traders a component of portfolio safety.

One high-quality inventory that I believe is price contemplating right now is Sage (LSE: SGE). It’s presently buying and selling for about 1,170p – about 13% under its highs.

Sage is a supplier of accounting software program to small- and medium-sized companies. So it needs to be comparatively resistant to US tariffs.

In the meantime, as a software program supplier, it has a excessive degree of recurring revenues and a capital-light enterprise mannequin. So in concept, it needs to be fairly defensive in nature.

When it comes to the valuation, Sage presently trades on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of about 24, which isn’t excessive for a worthwhile software program firm. The dividend yield‘s about 2%, meaning that there’s a little bit little bit of revenue on supply from the inventory.

After all, a recession continues to be a threat right here. If loads of small companies had been to go underneath, Sage’s progress would more than likely gradual and its share price would endure.

Taking a long-term view nonetheless, I’m bullish on Sage. I count on it to have success because the world turns into extra digital and companies flip to cloud-based software program options to extend their effectivity.