There is a danger of investors getting too caught up in the doom and gloom about the macro-economic situation in the country and overlooking the opportunities to grow their investments at home.
There is little correlation between GDP growth and stock market growth, making the majority of the debates in the press over the former largely irrelevant to investors.
In addition, the triviality of arguments about the health of the economy is highlighted by the constant revisions to GDP figures.
Here, two highly rated managers who have made a pile of money during the recession pick five stocks that are prospering despite the poor health of the economy as a whole.
Renishaw
Gerard Callahan, head of UK equities at Baillie Gifford, likes UK engineering firm Renishaw, which manufactures high-tech tools in areas such as measurement and precision machining.
The company has seen its share price grow by 166.88 per cent over the past five years while the FTSE All Share has risen a more modest 26.48 per cent.
Performance of stock vs index over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
"It’s a large fish in a small pond," Callahan said. "The founders do not really care about spoon-feeding analysts with information, so it can move up and down, but in the long-term we think it’s in a pretty good place."
The company makes up 1.8 per cent of the Baillie Gifford UK Equity Alpha fund, whose management team Callahan leads.
Rightmove
While the UK housing market has had a rough period, with house prices declining after 2007, house search website Rightmove has seen sharp and steady growth.
The stock is up an impressive 411.39 per cent over the past five years and Callahan has held it for all of this time.
Performance of stock vs index over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
He says his only regret is not putting more money in it.
"Rightmove is now quite a large holding," he explained.
"We have owned it through the downturn. We foolishly didn’t double up when it took a beating in 2007 and 2008, which I eternally regret. But I had a lot to worry about at that time."
"We have resisted the temptation to trim it back. We have let it grow in the portfolio."
Callahan says that the business model – estate agents pay fees for a certain amount of time on the site rather than based on the transactions they make through it – means that it is not sensitive to volumes in the housing market.
At 6.2 per cent, the stock is the largest single holding in the fund.
Faroe Petroleum
Many investors consider small cap oil and gas firms to be high-risk investments, but Paul Mumford, manager of the Cavendish Opportunities fund, thinks there are some companies with a defendable niche.
Among others in the sector he holds Faroe Petroleum, which has particularly attractive licences, he explains.
"Faroe has the advantage of exposure to the Norwegian part of the North Sea as well as the Atlantic margin," he said. "The Norwegian part is more attractive because Norway gives a refund of 80 per cent of the drilling costs once the well has been drilled."
"Once you have drilled the well, this means you get back the drilling costs and you can farm it out to major oil companies."
"The advantage over Shell or BP is that each find can be transformational to the share price."
Mumford explains that there are ways to limit the risks associated with investing in this sector.
"The ones I have bought have good cash-flows and cash balances and their drilling programme is funded well out into the future."
"The big risk you have is funding the development of the well once you have found the oil."
"But generally the exploration companies, if they strike oil, either sell it off quickly or bring it near to the development stage and then sell it off to a major for production."
"In the short-term it is good, but in the long-term it’s horrible, because I could get much more."
Mumford explains that he held Premier and Cairn when they were tiny companies and before they made it on to the FTSE.
STV
Mumford says that this Scottish production company is a potential turnaround story, following recent licence renewals.
The stock has suffered for quite some time, having lagged the index over three years with returns of just 15.75 per cent.
Performance of stock vs index over 3yrs
Source: FE Analytics
"It has been a dog for quite a while, but it has been renegotiating its ITV licence in Scotland, which they have done," Mumford said.
"Their own Scottish TV licences should be rubber-stamped by Ofcom. They have huge cash-flows and now they have got ITV sorted out they look likely to be able to sort out their profitability."
Alliance Pharma
Mumford also holds this pharmaceutical company, which has a low-cost business model which makes money out of the drugs developed by other companies.
"It buys second-hand drugs from big pharma companies like Reckitt so it doesn’t have to do much marketing and spend on the R&D," Mumford said.
Performance of stock vs index over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
The stock is highly volatile, but has made big gains, with the share price up 70.39 per cent over the past five years, according to data from FE Analytics.