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Mr Abate stood by his prediction of a bullish year for US equities, stating the Standard & Poor's 500 index could be up by more than 20 per cent by the end of this year.

He said given his view the economy was turning up from the bottom, he would continue to invest in stable blue-chip companies that were viewed as best-in-class in terms of management and competitive position.

Mr Abate said the fund would also be placed in cyclical companies with products that would benefit from a selective pick-up in mainly consumer pent-up demand and were ahead of their peers in terms of restructuring, curtailing capital spending, reducing workforces and rationalising assets effectively to confront the recession.

He said: " As the green shoots of spring come to life, we expect the market to hold its recent gains and stabilise at these levels without a major correction barring a major government policy blunder or consumer demand shock.

"We further expect the outsized gains by the previous most oversold, more cyclical and smaller capitalisation companies to abate for a time as the market rally shifts from one derived from the arrest of the economic free-fall to one that is driven by fundamental improvements."

Jason Whitcombe, director of London-based IFA Evolve Financial Planning, said: "Fund managers are paid to have opinions on where markets are going. If Mr Abate is positing for the green shoots and the markets do go up then he will benefit but it is too difficult to predict at this point."