You can’t pick the bottom, but here are 4 ASX shares already bargains

Inflation and war have killed morale in the share market this year.

Despite a mini-revival in February, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is still more than 7% down for the year.

And no one knows when the carnage will stop.

Tribeca portfolio manager Jun Bei Liu reminded investors of the old axiom that trying to guess when the market has hit a trough is a fool’s game.

But if you already have an idea that ASX shares are pretty cheap, you need to strike.

“It’s hard to pick the very bottom,” she told Switzer TV Investing.

“But you know it’s coming. Maximum uncertainty is the time when you should start at least accumulating your positions.”

The idea is that if you can buy shares in quality companies at a roughly reasonable price then you will win in the long run, regardless of whether you bought exactly at the bottom.

So with that in mind, here are some ASX shares that Liu would buy at the moment:

Great reporting season, but all these ASX shares are down

Job classifieds site Seek Limited (ASX: SEK) has seen its shares plunge more than 20% this year.

This just makes Liu more hungry to add more of the stock to her portfolio.

“One of the best results out of reporting season was Seek,” she said.

“And look at the share price. It led to a double-digit earnings upgrade and the share price is lower than what it [was] before.”

Ord Minnett senior investment adviser Tony Paterno last week agreed that Seek is a stock to buy after an impressive updated guidance.

“We expect Seek to continue extracting value during the next 12 to 18 months.”

Liu is also bullish on ASX healthcare shares, especially those “blue chips” that have established track records.

“If you look at healthcare names, they have underperformed. Not because of the war, but they’ve underperformed because they were expensive companies, relative to other sectors.”

She specifically named CSL Limited (ASX: CSL), Resmed CDI (ASX: RMD) and Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH) as ones to target right now.

“All of them have reported pretty good numbers… And since then the share prices have come off again,” Liu said.

“All of that together makes these companies absolute standouts. When there’s a rebound it is these companies that will be the first ones to move [upwards].”

The benefit of betting on market leaders is that when interest rates inevitably move up, they will be ready for combat.

“They have pricing power. They can apply faster price increases so that their earnings growth is not going to be impacted,” she said.

“These companies will continue to grow.”

The post You can’t pick the bottom, but here are 4 ASX shares already bargains appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• 2 blue chip ASX 200 shares analysts rate as buys this month

Motley Fool contributor Tony Yoo owns CSL Ltd., Cochlear Ltd., and ResMed Inc. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns and has recommended CSL Ltd. and Cochlear Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has recommended ResMed. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Cochlear Ltd., ResMed Inc., and SEEK Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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