Two of the City of London’s star fund managers have expressed dramatically different views on the recent stock market declines.

Anthony Bolton of Fidelity cautioned that share prices were likely to fall further over “months rather than days”, while Stephen Whittaker of New Star has predicted “double-digit returns by the end of the year”.

Bolton, who manages a £6.3bn investment fund at Fidelity, told a briefing organised by the Securities and Investment Institute: “I have been saying for a while I felt we are in the last phase of a bull market … Looking at the charts of stocks I think this party has to end. We see people being very prepared to take on risk. That worries me.”