It is perhaps not surprising that defensive shares outperform when the market takes a turn for the worse after events such as those overwhelming Greece.

2 Steady dividend income

The other attraction of defensive shares is the steady dividend income. Dividends are paid to investors from the profits the company makes every year. So, when the revenue is very predictable the company can afford to pay higher dividends with some degree of certainty for investors. Nothing in life is guaranteed, and there is always a risk the dividend can be cut, but some have track records stretching back 20 years or more.

Shares in National Grid, which operates the electricity and gas networks and is the UKs largest utility company, currently offers a dividend yield of 5.2pc. The National Grid dividend is guaranteed to rise with inflation and is far better than the 0.8pc rate some high street banks are offering.

3 The benefits of being boring

Sage, the FTSE 100-listed accounting software company, may be boring but it remains a profitable cash machine for investors. The latest set of first-half results showed rising organic sales and profits and the shares have performed well during the latest sell-off.

The tobacco sector is another where the results are steady and predictable. The shares are not for everyone as customers are effectively addicted to its products and therefore continue to buy them even when cutting back in other areas.

Tobacco companies are managing to fight off falling sales by steadily increasing prices and keeping tight control of costs. Imperial Tobacco and British American Tobacco remain solid defensive favourites. The shares in both companies offer a dividend yield of 4.4pc. We would recommend them as a core holding in any investment portfolio.

The pharmaceutical sector has been more of a mixed bag for investors this year. Big pharma is still grappling with the loss of profits from older blockbuster drugs. As these drugs come out of patent cheaper copies are eroding the market.

AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline are fighting back and have enjoyed some breakthroughs on new cancer treatments and cures for rare diseases. Shares in both of these FTSE 100-listed pharmaceutical giants also offer excellent dividend income.

Shire has also been subject to a takeover bid, which looks to have unravelled, but the shares are still up more than 13pc so far this year.

Consumer goods giants Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever have been hit by a slowdown in emerging markets, but their cleaning products still have steady demand and they remain good defensive options. Reckitt Benckiser is up 7.3pc this year compared with Unilever, which is up 5.4pc.

4 Go with the flow

Shares in the UK utilities have provided steady returns to UK investors for the past 10 years.

Investor returns from the water sector are driven by a five-year regulatory cycle. The latest ruling from the water sector regulator Ofwat was in December last year and this set the prices for the five-year period until 2020. Water companies have greater certainty about the prices they can charge and the dividends they can pay, now that an agreement has been reached.

United Utilities is one of the steadiest operators in the sector and it said it would increase its annual dividend at least in line with the rate of RPI (a measure of inflation) inflation until 2020. The shares are a classic defensive play as United Utilities is the largest listed water utility in the country.

Pennon is not your average utility company. It combines South West Water, a profitable and stable water utility, and Viridor, a struggling recycling group. Quite the odd couple. Severn Trent finishes the collection of UK-listed water utility companies and it was also the target of a £22-per-share takeover bid last year from sovereign wealth funds. Severn Trent cut its dividend by 5pc at the end of last year, but has pledged to increase it by at least RPI until 2020.

Shares in the UK power sector are on a much surer footing after the Conservatives were re-elected as this removes the threats of Labour price freezes. SSE is one of the UK’s big six energy providers and was formerly known as Scottish and Southern. The UK’s largest listed utility company, National Grid, reported a steady profit performance in its annual results, an encouraging start following its new eight-year settlement with the energy regulator provides the backdrop for steady returns.

Utility companies are highly indebted so they are exposed to rising interest rates, but they should fare better than most in a market slump.