Richard Buxton, the new head of UK equities at Old Mutual Global Investors, said the FTSE 100 could break through 7,000 and reach 7,300.

Its previous record high was 6,930.2 reached on 30 December 1999 during the height of the tech bubble.

Buxton (pictured), one of the top performing UK fund managers, quit Schroders to join rival Old Mutual in June after 11 years.

In his first public speaking appearance since joining Old Mutual, the manager said the UK was “through the worst” and the economy would grow modestly even though short-term concerns such as tapering of quantitative easing (QE) in the US may increase volatility.

As well as QE tapering, Buxton said German elections, China’s growth figures and issues in emerging markets could see the market suffer its “traditional wobble” in the next two months.

“The consensus view is that it could all kick off again after the German election. [Combined with weak Chinese GDP], it would be absolutely no surprise if one or more of these factors caused the traditional wobble in September and October,” he said.