Yesterday was a good day for the FTSE 100 index. It rose above 7,300 for the first time in December, after fears of the Omicron virus led to a wobble in the stock markets recently. Clearly then, it appears that investor confidence is returning. And if the index continues to rally through the rest of the month, my earlier prediction that it could conceivably rise to 7,500 by year-end might just happen.
As optimistic as I would like to be, however, I think it is also prudent to prepare for things to go wrong. There have been plenty of times this year when the stock markets looked like they were close to melting down. We have not seen a full-blown market crash, but there has been more than one day when my portfolio has been completely in the red, thanks to ongoing pandemic-driven challenges. So especially when the going is good, I like to remind myself what to buy if a stock market crash were to happen tomorrow. I do not want to be stuck not knowing what to do when the best stocks around become available at deep discounts.
JD Sports Fashion: an unstoppable FTSE 100 stock
The first such stock I would buy is JD Sports Fashion (LSE: JD). The FTSE 100 athleisure retailer has shown stellar stock market performance for a while now. And there is a whole new reason to like the stock now. It just did a stock split, so every share of the company became five shares. This means that for the price of one share earlier, I can now buy five shares. As can be imagined, this has resulted in a massive price drop per share.
It is now available for a little over 200p. But the low absolute value should not fool me. It is a solid stock that has seen massive gains over the years. I expect that it would continue to see big gains in the future, which is why I just increased my holdings as well.
Of course being a retailer, there is always the risk that it could face challenges again if we were to go back into lockdowns. And this would now be at a time that it has made some acquisitions. This could add greater complexity to its situation. But going by its long-term performance, I am fairly confident it could bounce back.
Croda International: consistently performing
Croda International is another FTSE 100 stock for me to buy. The speciality chemicals’ manufacturer looks prohibitively expensive with a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 55 times. But a look at its long-term share price chart tells me why. The stock has pretty much consistently been rising over the years, so clearly investors are ready to buy it at a premium. And its performance has been strong too. It goes without saying that past performance is no guarantee of future returns, but is nevertheless a strong indicator.
A market crash could be just the right time for me to buy this high performing stock on dip.