Post correction, Indian stocks attractive: Mark Mobius

01 August 2006

Author of The Investor's Guide to Emerging Markets, Mobius on Emerging Markets, and Passport to Profits, Mark Mobius, PhD in economics and political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joined Templeton in 1987 as president of Templeton Emerging Markets Fund Inc in Hong Kong. He currently directs the analysts based in Templeton's eleven emerging markets offices and manages the emerging markets portfolios.

Dr Mobius has spent over thirty years working in Asia and other parts of the emerging markets world. As a result of his experience, in 1999 he was appointed joint chairman of the World Bank and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Global Corporate Governance Forum's Investor Responsibility Taskforce.

He believes the recent round of sell-offs in emerging markets was triggered mainly by an increase in interest rates. Mobius says that if US growth slows down as a result of higher interest rates or high oil prices, then emerging markets will be hit further.

Mobius further says that some of the Indian stocks have got a bit expensive, but after the correction, they have started to look good again. Consumers and commodities are his favourite sectors at the moment. CNBC shares with domain-b its 's exclusive interview with Mark Mobius:

Can you characterise what has gone on in emerging markets over the last three months or so. How severe has it been?
We had a 22 per cent decline but it has now spread all over the place. Turkey was down 40 per cent and Malaysia was down 10 per cent. So there have been a lot of differences between different countries. We have seen an opportunity to buy because we see that valuations are still good, despite the fact that we had this tremendous bull run.