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Asked to discuss what the new year holds for the FTSE by the Guardian, the head of Gartmore's UK absolute return fund, Luke Newman, predicted that the likes of Shell, BP, GlaxoSmithKline and Astra Zeneca will do much better than firms in the engineering and housebuilding sectors over the next 12 months.
He suggested this will be due to them not suffering from high levels of debt and their overseas revenue streams.
"They will benefit from the strength of the dollar and starting from strong positions with their balance sheets," Mr Newman explained.
Other businesses expected to do well for the same reasons include drinks maker Diageo, Prudential and Imperial Tobacco.
The latter was down by four points on the London Stock Exchange at around 10:40 GMT this morning.
Posted by Greg Secker
