to gold and the big players, investors urged

Philip Wong of Redmayne Bentley said the precious metal, as well as stocks like GlaxoSmithKline, Royal Dutch Shell and National Grid, should be considered by investors whose returns have been hit by the continuing low level of interest rates.

The broker, based in Leeds, was speaking in the run up to St Leger's Day on September 11. The old trading floor refrain of "sell in May and go away, come back on St Leger Day" refers to expectations that the stock market will be subdued each summer. Mr Wong said: "Investors would be prudent to position themselves defensively against the economic backdrop, aligning exposure to companies with strong foreign operations and good cash balances which can be used for further expansion, whether this be organic growth or through acquisitions.

"With bank savings accounts still paying derisory interest, the FTSE 100 index is a good option to generate additional income.

"Our favoured commodity exposure is gold, in light of the safe haven qualities."

The FTSE enjoyed a strong start to the year but suffered in February due to fears the Greek sovereign debt crisis could spread across the Mediterranean. A recovery followed as the market lifted to a high of 5825 in mid-April but it sank heavily again in July, to 4805.

Mr Wong also said investors were not hugely concerned over the prospect of inflation, despite the 200bn spent on the quantitative easing programme, the chance of more to come and rising commodity prices.

The "tap has to be turned off" permanently at some point, he added, so the economy can correct itself.