The Lloyds share price (LON:LLOY) staged a white-knuckle ride of a rally in late 2020, before making a retracement into the close of the year.

Despite the sharp pull-back, Lloyds has more to offer investors in 2021 with shares valued attractively and the prospect of a UK economic recovery likely to boost sentiment around Lloyds shares.

As we have previously noted when analysing Lloyds, valuing Lloyds by their profitability during the pandemic can be a perilous pursuit as UK banks’ profits have been ravaged by the Black Swan event of COVID-19, making the past 12 months earnings a poor barometer of earnings in the future.

In addition, profits over the next couple of quarters will be unpredictable and largely correlated to short-term government decisions on economic lockdown restrictions. 

We would look to the book value or net asset value of Lloyds as the foremost valuation methodology.

Lloyds shares

During the pandemic, investors have effectively marked down their perceptions of what Lloyds assets are worth due to the risks of default caused by a severe economic downturn.

The Lloyds share price fell as low as 24p in 2020, before recovering.

Now that the worst of the economic uncertainty is behind us with the roll out of vaccines, the market is likely to reduce their risk rating attached to Lloyds shares as the chances of significant rates of default diminish.

The end of the furlough scheme and changes to taxes in the UK still pose potential threats to the underlying health of the UK economy, and Lloyds profitability, but these are favourable when compared to a protracted pandemic and lockdown. 

With Lloyds shares trading at roughly 50% of the Book Value of the company, there is plenty of space for shares to move to the upside and back in line with historical averages. 

Lloyds Dividend

There is also the prospect of the bank resuming the payments of dividends in the near term. Lloyds, along with all other UK banks, ceased the payments of dividends after a warning from the Bank of England they must conserve cash to see them through the coronavirus pandemic.

With the pandemic seemingly moving towards its final stages after the approval of the third vaccine in the UK, The Bank of England have lifted guidance against paying dividends meaning Lloyds are now free start paying dividends again. 

Investors should expect dividend guidance in Lloyds next update, but also understand the resumption of dividends will likely be gradual over the coming reporting periods. 

Nonetheless, the additional buying pressure from income investors returning to the stock will provide support for the share price going forward.

The combination of anticipation surrounding the Lloyds dividend and the low Price-to-Book valuation means the 2021 trading year is likely to be a positive one for the Lloyds share price, discounting any unexpected bad news concerning coronavirus.

NIO shares (NYSE:NIO) broke to all time highs in Friday’s session as investor eagerly awaited the fourth annual ‘NIO Day’ and the unveiling of a new flagship car.

Listed in New York, NIO is China’s answer to Elon Musk’s Tesla with a range of smart and sustainable automotives that use electric batteries.

NIO Day is celebration of the Chinese company’s technology and is akin to Apple’s launch events with investors and media abuzz with the latest unveiling of new products.

2020’s NIO Day comes days after the company released bumper delivery figures that showed a 121% increase in December when compared to a year prior.

NIO delivered 7,007 vehicles in December and a total of 43,728 in 2020 – a 112% increase on 2019.

The growth in delivered vehicles has been reflected in NIO shares which posted strong gains through 2020. Having traded below $4 in January 2020, shares in ‘China’s Tesla’ touched $59 the day before NIO Day 2020.

“2020 has been a challenging year for the whole world. Against this backdrop, NIO has achieved consecutive record-highs along the way, and closed the year on a high note with a remarkable December deliveries of over 7,000 vehicles,” said William Bin Li, founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of NIO.

“These results are attributable to the growing recognition of our premium brand, the competitive and compelling products and services, the expanding sales network, and most importantly, the continuous support from our passionate and loyal user community. The innovative Battery as a Service (BaaS) model has shown popularity among our users since its launch. With the 100kWh battery pack offered as an option, the penetration of BaaS has reached over 40% among new orders in December, demonstrating its competitiveness and acceptance by our users. At the fourth NIO Day scheduled on January 9^th, 2021, we will unveil our new sedan model and share the latest development of our autonomous driving and other core technologies. Aspired by the spirit of ‘Always Forward,’ the theme of the upcoming NIO Day, we will continue investing in the smart EV technologies, accelerating our new products development, broadening our sales and service network, and striving for the best holistic experiences for our growing user community in 2021 and beyond.”

NIO’s Chinese company name translates to ‘blue sky coming’ – worth noting with NIO shares trading at all time highs prior to NIO Day.

Reach shares soared on Friday morning as the publisher saw digital revenue in Q4 grow by 25%.

The owner of Express, the Daily Star and other brands posted a strong digital performance and expects underlying operating profit for 2020 to between £130m to £135m. This is ahead of analyst consensus expectations which were £122m.

The chief executive, Jim Mullen, said: “It is a testament to our people that Reach has not only dealt with the unique challenges 2020 has presented, but we have accelerated our strategy and we are ahead of where we expected to be.

“The new COVID-19 restrictions bring macro-economic uncertainty, but the changes made in the business during 2020 to develop a new, more efficient operating model put us in a strong competitive position.”

In July, Reach said it planned to axe 550 jobs, which is over 10% of its workforce. Print sales fell 12% in the fourth quarter. and overall quarterly revenues were down 10% on a year ago.

December saw the group reach five million online customers registered for Reach ID. This is the customer insight platform that provides a combined view of the user’s activity across all of the group’s sites.

This month Reach will launch new sites that will cover Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It is also expanding the MyLondon editorial team.

Last year, Reach suspended its interim dividend “due to Covid-19 uncertainty”.

Reach shares are trading 18.46% at 208.01 (1133GMT) and hit a 10-year high.