Bolton: Now is not the time to sell

Fidelity’s Anthony Bolton has said this week’s tumultuous equity markets should be seen by investors as a “time of opportunity”.

Speaking towards the end of a five-day period in which global stocks dropped sharply over growth concerns and the sovereign debt crisis, Bolton said the volatility reflected familiar trends.

"I believe the recent stock market volatility reflects a familiar pattern during this bull market of short, but often very sharp setbacks, within a bull trend," said the manager of Fidelity's £635m China Special Situations trust.

"History shows that normally extreme equity market volatility as we are now experiencing should be seen as a time of opportunity rather than a time to become more defensive."

Bolton suggested the fears over future growth levels in Western markets reflected his base case scenario over the state of the global economy

"For some time I have argued the outlook for the US and particularly Europe is for growth but well below normal growth rates", he added.

Last week Bolton suggested that market volatility in China had surprised him, but said the daily gains and falls of up to 5% were largely driven by "market noise" rather than stock fundamentals.