Bank, retail and media shares could gain this year, according to the expert.
Recent declines on the market could actually benefit savvy stock pickers, a top fund manager has suggested.
Sanjeev Shah at Fidelity said that the market was currently in a "great bottom up… environment" and that he was "more optimistic" about equities than he had been for some time.
Stock markets around the world have been hit hard by the credit crunch, with bank shares in particularly falling in value. The FTSE 100 retreated by over 30 percent in 2008, with the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo faring still worse at 42 percent down on the year.
Mr Shah said: "I expect we will see plenty more surprises next year but I also anticipate that they will have less detrimental effect on investor sentiment which is already at extremely low levels. In fact, confidence is starting to creep back into markets from many places.
"More directors have recently been buying their own companies' shares than at any time in the last year - that they have been doing so in a falling market is doubly significant."
The fund manager advised buying banking stocks and so-called "consumer cyclicals": media, retail and leisure firms. The fund under Mr Shah's management has maintained first decile - in other words, top ten percent - performance among its peers over the past eleven months.
