A recovery of confidence by the world's institutional investors - and the $600bn (€417bn) ready to deploy into the US equity market alone - is one of the main reasons why Goldman Sachs is bullish for the year ahead, according to the bank's senior economists.

Goldman's research team, spearheaded by head economist Jim O'Neill, who was flanked by chief US strategist David Kostin and his European counterpart Peter Oppenheimer, set out a comparatively rosy outlook for the year ahead at a conference in London yesterday morning - together with ideas for how their buyside clients can profit from it.