Top investor buys into internet stocks

Mark Mobius is buying technology stocks despite global rout

Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management’s Emerging Markets Group, said he’s buying technology stocks after a global rout left companies such as Tencent Holdings trading at “reasonable” valuations. Photograph: David Rochkind/Bloomberg
Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management’s Emerging Markets Group, said he’s buying technology stocks after a global rout left companies such as Tencent Holdings trading at “reasonable” valuations. Photograph: David Rochkind/Bloomberg

Mark Mobius, who oversees about $50 billion at Templeton Emerging Markets Group, said he's buying technology stocks after a global rout left companies such as Tencent Holdings trading at "reasonable" valuations.

“If you look at Tencent for example, it’s come down about 20 per cent and that’s a pretty good correction,” Mobius, whose Templeton Asian Growth Fund outperformed 88 per cent of peers this year, said.

Mobius, an investor in emerging markets for more than 40 years, is adding to holdings amid a retreat that erased this year’s gains in the Bloomberg Asia Pacific Internet Index and sent Tencent to a two-month low today.

While Asia’s largest internet company is valued at a 170 per cent premium versus the MSCI Asia Pacific Index based on estimated earnings, that’s the smallest gap since January 27th and down from 224 percent in March.

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