Morgan Stanley reiterates 'buy' for FTSE 100, highlights 'defensive' qualities

On just over two-thirds of the occassions that global equities had fallen over the past two decades, the MSCI UK index had outperformed MSCI Europe.

Under the assumption that inflation-adjusted bond yields would rise to -0.1%, they estimated that MSCI UK was set to outperform by approximately 12%.

And changing hands at 12.6 times' earnings, London's top-flight index was the cheapest major index when compared with the last 10 years.

Furthermore, consensus forecasts for earnings per share growth for MSCI UK of less than 3% felt "very low" to them.

Regarding its dividend payouts, MSCI UK was trading on a dividend yield of 3.6%, which was 150 basis points more than for the MSCI Europe if the UK were excluded.

The UK also stood to benefit from rising oil prices, because 25% of UK profits came from the energy sector, they pointed out.

At the individual company level, they singled out eight large capitalisation 'overweight' rates stocks that had over 10% upside left to their target price and the best "bull-bear skew".

Those included AstraZeneca, Diageo, Shell, RELX, Lloyds, Prudential and Vodafone.

All told, they had a 'buy' recommendation for the FTSE 100, labelling the investment case "compelling".