How many people, I wonder, thought long and hard about taking advantage of recent falls in the gaming sector's share prices and risk a modest punt on recovery? Quite a few, I fancy. Investors, even those with short memories, are conscious of the market's uncanny ability to bounce back, even from the most unpromising situations.

Time and again, snapping up unloved stocks has proven the most effective way to build capital, although this is not necessarily a strategy which guarantees short term riches.

Consider this year's performance of Vodafone, for example, a stock that has always been a big favourite with investors, currently thanks to a dividend close to five per cent.

In March, the company's share price reached a nadir, closing at 109p, having been at 152p the previous November.

For the next five months, it frequently touched intra-day lows of between 105p-110p, although more recently, it has edged slowly upwards.

And despite the opinions of some technical analysts, the shares should continue to be popular for the foreseeable future.

Of course, it isn't much use being wise after the event - the best time to buy Vodafone shares was in March.

So how can investors profit from acquiring stock bargains, especially when evidence suggests falling prices could plummet further?

I have mentioned here before that watching trends in the buying habits of certain fund managers can often provide welcome support for individual investment decisions, although even these guys do not always get it right.

Nevertheless, consider the words of Andrew Bolton, Fidelity's most consistently successful fund manager for more than a quarter of a century: He said: "There are times when stocks get over-hyped and then, for various reasons, the market goes in the other direction.

"What I try to use is my ability to spot when the market undervalues those stocks that I think will come more correctly priced in the future."

Well, you might say, that is what fund managers get paid to do (and you would be right), but the point is, that over the past two quarters, a discernable market trend has taken shape.

A number of well-respected managers have moved away from investing in smaller companies and into the much larger giants that dominate the FTSE-100 index.

Why is this? Since 2002, the FTSE-100 index has risen by more than 32 per cent, whereas the FTSE-250 has rocketed by close to 90 per cent, comfortably outstripping its larger cousin.

Logically, such disparity cannot continue indefinitely, a view shared by HSBC, who earlier this month published a paper called Super Heavyweights which concluded the fortunes of Britain's stock market giants are set to improve markedly.

HSBC predicts the FTSE-100's ten largest companies, which account for about 40 per cent of its market capitalisation, will begin outperforming the market. Historically, the performances of companies such as BP, HBOS, Anglo American and yes, Vodafone, are considered less cyclical than mid-cap stocks and are, therefore, more attractive in a slowing economy.

Moreover, Robert Parkes of HSBC echoes the opinion of an increasingly large number of fund managers when he says, "their relative under-performance has gone too far."

It should be said that buying into companies of the size of AstraZeneca and Barclays will not make investors rich overnight, but that is the very point of stock market investment.

What these companies do provide is strong balance sheets, attractive yields and product diversity, pretty useful assets at times of economic uncertainty, as anyone currently contemplating an investment in the gaming sector will appreciate.