By Charlotte Beugge

The manager of one of the largest funds investing in UK companies has named his ten favourite stocks for 2012.

In an interview with Investment Week, Richard Buxton, manager of Schroder UK Alpha Plus, said he is keeping faith with mining companies this year. This is despite the fund suffering last year because it was invested in mining and bank shares.

Buxton told the paper that he expects mining stocks could do particularly well this year, adding that there is "material upside to be achieved" on mining companies.

"The market clearly has concerns about the global outlook specifically about a Chinese hard landing. It has marked these things down to levels where they are pricing in an absolute collapse in underlying commodity prices, with no scope for the generation of super-normal rates of return."

Mining stock Xstrata remains a favourite, accounting for 3.4% of the portfolio. The biggest holding is GlaxoSmithKline at 5.6%; Tate & Lyle at 4.6%; Royal Dutch Shell at 3.9%; BG Group at 3.7%; Shire, 3.7%; Burberry, 3.3%; Rolls Royce 3.1%; Experian, 3% and Standard Chartered, 3%.

Figures from Hargreaves Lansdown show that over the year to 12 January, Schroder UK Alpha Plus is down 7.85%, whereas over three years it is up 63.8%.