The market has been up and down this year, but one thing is for certain — uncertainty.
There is no shortage of guesses — but no one really knows how the war in Ukraine will turn out, nor how the economy and the share market will cope with multiple interest rate rises.
In such volatile times, it's not such a bad idea to invest in ASX shares that provide the essentials of life.
If companies provide products and services people can't live without, then at least you don't have to worry about waning demand.
Here are a couple of such stocks Wilsons investment advisor Peter Moran currently rates as buys:
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'Outlook is improving'
Fruit and vegetable supplier Costa Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: CGC) has seen its shares rise more than 13.7% over the past month.
Moran isn't surprised, with his team recently upgrading the stock to "overweight".
"The outlook is improving for Australia's biggest grower and marketer of fresh fruit and vegetables," he told The Bull.
"Positive catalysts include increasing table grape exports and higher domestic pricing in the key categories of mushrooms, blueberries and tomatoes."
There are some handy foreign tailwinds too.
"The international business is benefiting from increasing demand from China and from supply issues for competitors based in Chile."
Costa Group shares also give out a tidy 2.65% dividend yield.
It seems Moran is not the only one bullish on Costa. According to CMC Markets, 10 out of 13 analysts rate the stock as either "strong buy" or "moderate buy".
'Well-positioned to compete'
As well as eating vegetables and fruit, Australians also need somewhere to live.
That's where Moran's recommendation of Resimac Group Ltd (ASX: RMC) shares comes in.
"Resimac is one of Australia's largest non-bank financial lenders," he said.
"The company's [flexible] and attractively-priced loans have resulted in solid loan origination growth in recent years."
Believe it or not, Moran rates Resimac as a buy despite expecting a financial downgrade in the short term.
"The lending environment is competitive and we expect a slight decrease in profitability for the current financial year," he said.
"However, Resimac is well-positioned to compete in this environment and we expect profit growth to resume next financial year. We hold an overweight recommendation."
Analyst coverage on the $680 million company is sparse. CMC Markets shows just one other fund manager other than Wilsons also rating it as a buy.
The share price has dipped 11.6% for the year so far.
