Tim Steer: As this bull market continues, look to the UK for stocks This year, for the first time ever, more than $1 trillion of leveraged loans and high-yield bonds will be issued. Cov-lite loans - bank loans without restrictive covenants to protect creditors - have accounted for around half of all new issuance this year. In the heady days of 2007, the cov-lite share of new issuance peaked at a paltry 25pc. Demand for leveraged loans this year has been so high that around one-third of new issues have been repriced, giving borrowers even better terms. Private equity firms are using the buoyant credit markets to extract cash from their buy-outs. The first nine months of this year saw a record $60bn of so-called "dividend recaps." Meanwhile, with embassies in 140 countries around the world, which employ 500 chauffeurs, the European Union has found the cash and the need to have 44 diplomats in that centre of world events, Barbados. Coca-Cola spends €2.13bn (£1.78bn) a year on advertising - but the EU spends €2.4bn. Money is still frittered away. As for "austerity Britain," this Government has already printed £375bn since taking office. The country borrowed £120bn last year, spent nearly 50pc of GDP and the national debt is still climbing at 10pc a year. For what? Growth of 0.8pc in GDP last quarter. Wow! And France? A credit downgrade, negative growth and, most recently, a critical OECD report. Barely capitalist, semi-communist France is about as close as you can get to China - without going there. But in all this, thank goodness for companies, if not countries, that are doing the right thing. Unlike sovereigns, companies in the UK at least are in fairly good fettle, unless of course they are subject to unnecessary interference for political purposes as appears to be the case for energy companies that go about the business of collecting the green levy for the Government, but then get lambasted for it. Although equity valuations have gone up, we think there is still value to be had in selected stocks, especially as balance sheets are in good shape. The question is, which ones? In a bull market, because that's what we are in, it is clear to me that it is earnings revisions that move share prices more than anything else. The OECD says that GDP growth in 2014 for the UK should be as high as 2.4pc and many believe that by the time we are half-way through 2014 this will have risen to 3pc - one of the highest in the developed world. It is therefore right that in an environment of rising UK economic forecasts that we look to buy UK stocks that are having earnings revisions and preferably buy them ahead of those revisions. I have done some analysis on a large number of UK-listed stocks and it is the ones that do the vast amount of their business in the UK that are having their earnings estimates revised up the most. Keeping it simple, the list of companies that are having their earnings revised up most are, in general, smaller companies and those in the FTSE Mid-Cap index. For the past two years it has been right to have exposure to these two sectors of the market and avoid the so-called blue-chips that are more international. 2014 will be the same. Tim Steer is an investment fund manager with Artemis