Is this the best stock to back in 2012?

Burberry has been named the best stock to buy in 2012 by Kames Capital's head of UK equities, Stephen Adams.

Burberry has long been favoured by a number of well known UK equity fund managers, including Schroders' UK Equity Alpha star Richard Buxton.

Adams described the luxury brand group as a classic company with great fundamentals being driven by sales in emerging markets, particularly China.

"China is probably responsible for about 20% of sales," he said. "If you include the London and Paris stores and other stores in the Western economy where Chinese visitors buy, it is probably getting up to half the business."

"We're putting our money where our mouth is and we are buying it as we speak. I have strong confidence that the stock can outperform in the current year. There have been earnings upgrades and we think there's more to come. Burberry is a key stock for us."

Burberry shares were caught up in the sell-off in August in 2011, and having risen to a peak of £16 they fell back to end the year at £11.85, having started 2011 at £11.42.

So far this year the stock has rocketed, gaining 13.8% to hit £13.49 by the end of Thursday's session, following a strong trading update.