Andy Nasr, vice president and investment strategist at Sentry Investments

Focus: REITs, global equities and macro strategy
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MARKET OUTLOOK
We continue to anticipate a moderate improvement in global growth, supported by relatively accommodative monetary policies that may be supplemented by fiscal stimulus. While our equity exposure remains more concentrated in the U.S, diminishing political risk in Europe and an improvement in both Eurozone domestic demand and operational leverage prompted us to increase our allocation to international equities during 1Q17. European equities are well positioned to benefit from an improvement in corporate profitability — which remains well below 2007 levels — rising margins and a stronger euro. Notwithstanding our expectations for a modest increase in interest rates and inflation, we continue to believe that U.S. recession risk remains low given the underlying ability of both consumers and corporations to service their debt obligations.

TOP PICKS

PRICELINE GROUP (PCLN.O)
Priceline operates online travel booking businesses in over 200 countries. Only 35 per cent of travel bookings are completed online with both Priceline and Expedia accounting for over 75 per cent of gross bookings. We believe that the shares are attractively valued in the context of the expected growth in online bookings, which will be supported by increasing travel spending in domestic and international markets.

CAPGEMINI SE (CGEMY.PK)
The company is a provider of information technology (IT) consulting services, which will continue to be driven by the implementation of off-premises computing, data analytics and cybersecurity. We expect Capgemini to benefit from demand for cloud-based products and applications, which should also lead to margin expansion as more services are delivered from lower-cost offshore locations.

LILAC (LILAK.O)
LiLAC is a Latin American-focused cable and wireless company that has strong market share in Chile, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, where broadband and wireless penetration is relatively low. The company is part of the Liberty Global family and should benefit from modest organic growth, disciplined capital allocation and synergies from recent acquisitions.
 

PAST PICKS: MARCH 30, 2016

FORTIS (FTS.TO)

• Then: $40.47
• Now: $45.51
• Return: 12.45%
• TR: 17.81%

CCL INDUSTRIES (CCLb.TO)

• Then: $48.63
• Now: $65.58
• Return: 34.85%
• TR: 36.22%

LIQUOR STORES N.A. (LIQ.TO)

• Then: $7.78
• Now: $10.31
• Return: 32.51%
• TR: 38.25%

TOTAL RETURN AVERAGE: 30.76%