Standard Life fund managers believe that investors will find buying opportunities if the uncertainties and concerns that are weakening international stock markets prove to be ill-founded.

"If these concerns prove to be ill-founded, then any market weakness which might emerge over the next few weeks will be a buying opportunity as rates keep coming down," it says.

HSBC is cautioning that the weakness is similar to the collapse in world markets in 1998. The key difference now is that there is no global shock and that the problems all stem from the US economy, which has to rely on rapid rate cuts to arrest a recession.

HSBC warns, however, though that this does not always work.