I do love a good bargain. So today, I’m searching for some of the best low-cost British stocks to buy for September. Should I buy these cheap UK shares for my Stocks and Shares ISA?
Hydrogen play motors on
Many UK shares involved in the green revolution can offer investors like me a chance to make some cash. This is where Proton Motor Power Systems (LSE: PPS) comes in, a business which makes hydrogen fuel cells for cars, ships and trains. It also builds stationary units to power homes and businesses, and makes hydrogen-based hybrid engines for automobiles as well.
News coming out of the company has been mightily bright in recent weeks and months. The penny stock inked its first order with Electra Commercial Vehicles last month to power a prototype refuse collection truck. It also signed another contract with E-Trucks Europe to supply seven hydrogen cell systems for a fleet of rubbish trucks.
Demand for Proton Motor Power Systems’ stationary units is also encouraging and last week it reported another order from aerospace and automotive giant GKN to supply more of its ‘S8’ autonomous fuel cell systems. GKN has now taken 25 of these systems off the small-cap’s hands.
The escalating climate crisis is supercharging the need for low-carbon electricity generation. But that’s not to say PPS is nailed on to succeed. Competition from existing power technologies, and particularly those which can be adapted to reduce their emissions, remains a problem. The company also faces intense competition from other operators in the low-carbon-electricity field.
Another cheap UK share I’m considering buying
While Proton Motor Power Systems trades well within penny stock territory, below 40p, Flowtech Fluidpower (LSE: FLO) is another cheap UK share which formerly traded under the £1 benchmark.
And it’s another one I’m thinking of adding to my Stocks and Shares ISA. But recent strength has seen it soar above penny-stock status and given it a chunky forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 21 times.
A high-ish rating like this could cause Flowtech’s shares to sink in value if market sentiment around the company starts to worsen. Still, for the time being, I think things are looking rosy for the UK firm which manufactures hydraulic and pneumatic systems used by industrial companies to create and control power. I think it can expect sales to steadily get better as the economic recovery clicks through the gears.
However, demand for its high-tech products remains below pre-pandemic levels. Revenues in the first half of 2021 remained 7.2% lower than they were in the first half of 2019. But business is starting to snap back sharply and, for the six months to June, sales were up almost 20% from a year earlier.
Remember however, fresh flare-ups in the global health crisis could derail Flowtech’s recent rebound. They could threaten to damage the bounceback in the UK engineering share’s global end markets, not to mention disrupting its supply chains.