Neil Hennessy, portfolio manager of the five-star-rated Hennessy Focus 30 Fund, offered CNBC insights -- and stock picks -- to beat a bear market.
"Mundane things can make a lot of money" but are often overlooked in favor of flashy trends, said Hennessy -- and those humdrum investments can also be more trustworthy during a downturn.
Recommendations:
He conceded that "some of the speculators are taking their money out of oil" -- but he recommends Oil States International regardless of oil prices. He believes that offshore drilling will become a necessity, and Oil States supplies service products and deep-sea pipes to drillers -- a business the company handles "extremely well."
W.R. Grace: Most people think of its as a construction company, but it's actually a chemical company," he says. It boasts such mundane -- but huge -- businesses as coating food cans. Excited? Consider hennessy's numbers: WR Grace coated "340 billion cans last year."
Lastly, SPX, a diversifed company that makes everything from cooling systems for power plants to food and beverage to diagnostics for autos -- and he notes that SPX has the flexibility to move out of sectors that stagnate, lessening its auto exposure greatly in recent days.
Disclosures:
Disclosure information was not immediately available for Hennessy or for his company.