With Australia’s equity benchmark teetering near a record high, the talk among some fund managers has shifted from the stocks they are backing to those that they are choosing to avoid.

On Monday, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 closed within 35 points from its all-time high set in late March, having rallied around 15 per cent from its lows in October. Strategists have also turned more bullish, with the gauge expected to climb above 8,000 by the end of the year.