THE PAST year has not been kind to savers, what with a Bank of England base-rate cut leading to countless copycat moves across the savings-account universe.

With inflation now threatening to erode any cash held within low-paying bank accounts, could 2017 be the year to dabble in a bit of stock-market investing?

For the uninitiated the best way to access the stock market is via a collective investment vehicle such as a fund or an investment trust, where the manager takes responsibility for choosing individual holdings and – crucially – selling them.

While picking a fund to invest in can be a minefield, Sheridan Admans, investment research manager at stockbroker The Share Centre, said having an idea of sectors and geographies you would be comfortable investing in is a good starting point.

“We believe sector selection will be a key aspect to outperforming in 2017, as sector rotation has become an important factor towards the end of 2016,” he said.

“Sectors that we like include healthcare, financials, technology and consumer discretionary.”

For David Jane, a fund manager at investment group Miton, “economically sensitive laggards” like industrials and financials are likely to be good bets in 2017 as “many of the headwinds have been removed in recent months”.

On a geographic basis, he said the election of Donald Trump as US president is likely to result in a “positive backdrop for the US corporate sector”.

“The easy call is to be bullish on the US where most of the pieces are already in place and we’re happy to be heavily invested there,” he said.

“More courageous calls would be Japan and Europe, where valuations remain much lower and the strong dollar is a clear benefit.

“Europe in particular has been a huge laggard, for all the well-known economic and political reasons, yet its stock market is relatively underexposed to these issues. This may be the market that surprises in 2017.”

Another surprise could be that domestically focused UK companies, which suffered in 2016 as a result of the fall of the pound against the dollar and euro, could be a better bet than the large international companies that prospered thanks to sterling’s weakness.

“Longer-term uncertainty surrounding the UK’s secession from the EU may weigh on the more domestically focused FTSE 250 Index, although we note the strong earnings growth of many areas of that market,” said Richard Larner, head of research at Edinburgh investment firm Brooks Macdonald.

“Overall, we believe expectations of higher fiscal spending and looser financial conditions post-Brexit should benefit FTSE 250 companies more than the large global companies in the FTSE 100 Index.”

Andy Parsons, head of investments at The Share Centre, said there are a number of funds that are “capable of weathering and possibly even benefiting from the market turbulence we might expect ahead”.

One is the CF Miton US Opportunities fund, which Parsons said “gives investors an opportunity to benefit from the US recovery by investing primarily in North American equities which are seen to have a competitive advantage”.

“The managers believe that companies with regular and growing cash flow are more likely to deliver attractive returns than immature businesses looking to develop new products or relying on one-off events. This should put them in a relatively safe position under the Trump presidency,” he added.

Another is the Polar Capital Global Insurance fund, which, as its name suggests, is dedicated to investing in the global insurance industry.

“This fund offers a chance to tap into a major component of the global economy,” Parsons said. “In a time of market volatility many investors will be reassured by the stability this industry potentially offers, although they should appreciate the increased level of risk associated with focusing on just the one sector.”

For Richard Troue, head of investment analysis at investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown, Jupiter India and BlackRock Emerging Markets Equity Tracker are among the funds he expects to perform well next year.

“India is the world’s fastest growing major economy and we feel currently offers tremendous potential,” he said.

“The Jupiter India Fund is our favoured way to access India’s exciting growth potential.

“Among higher-risk emerging markets, it is not just India that shows promise. We are positive on the prospect for emerging markets as a whole.

“The BlackRock Emerging Markets Equity Tracker is our favoured choice for investors who seek low-cost, broad exposure to emerging markets.

“It tracks the performance of the FTSE All-World Emerging index by investing in every stock in the index. This ensures wide diversification and ensures it tracks as accurately as possible.”

Two things to bear in mind when investing in a collective scheme are that the fund manager will keep a small percentage of your cash as payment for their services and that your investment will rise and fall with the markets.

While this means you could end up with less than you started with, investing for the long term should iron any volatility out.

Anyone not happy with locking their cash away should probably stick to a savings account.