With a quarter of the year already gone, I continue to think there is some excellent value to be found in the UK stock market. The flagship FTSE 100 index has already hit an all-time record high this year. It has had positive momentum so far in 2025, moving up 4%. That is equivalent to half of its total 8% gain over the past five years.
I still think there is value in the index. Here are two shares I think investors should consider at the moment that look like potential bargains to me.
JD Sports
Retailer JD Sports (LSE: JD) has grown from nothing over the past four decades to become a leading seller of sportswear not just in the UK, but internationally too.
That may sound like a hard business to defend, as a rival can come along and undercut on price. But JD has quite a few things that help set it apart. For example, it has a large estate of shops and continues to add hundreds more annually.
It also has unique products, a strong brand, and a large base of existing customers. The company has proven able to generate significant profits. It continues to plough a sizeable chunk of them into growing the business. So I reckon JD’s long-term earnings potential may be even better than its current performance suggests.
Despite all that, however, the FTSE 100 share has slid 14% over the past five years. That shop opening programme has been costly and the business faces other risks, including weak consumer sentiment potentially hurting demand.
Still, I continue to like the long-term prospects for JD Sports and reckon its current share price is potentially a bargain for investors to consider.
Diageo
Another potential bargain from the blue-chip index for investors to consider is brewer and distiller Diageo (LSE: DGE). It is the force behind a plethora of drinks ranging from Guinness to Smirnoff.
Making drinks at scale and selling them expensively thanks to fancy branding might sound like a license to print money. Indeed, Diageo is strongly profitable. Its earnings streams are so good that it has been able to raise its dividend per share annually for over three decades.
Despite that, the share has recently touched its lowest price in years. It is back to a level last seen eight years ago.
There are reasons for this, of course.
Soft customer demand in Latin America has hurt sales volumes and could be a warning of what is to come more widely. Younger consumers are drinking less booze than previous generations, while weak economic conditions in some markers could see demand for pricy tipples falling.
Nonetheless, the price has come down a long way and I continue to see Diageo as a high-quality company. I reckon Diageo is a share investors should consider now, while it sells close to a multi-year low share price.
