Mark Mobius's luke warm feelings for Malaysian equities

Mark Mobius of Templeton Fund said on April 17 on the Bloomberg: Malaysian equities are not only attractive but getting more attractive.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi last month vowed to proceed with infrastructure projects to promote growth and pledged measures to help the poor, seeking to reassure investors after the government's narrow poll victory.

Malaysian stocks are ``becoming more and more attractive as a result of these political changes,'' Mobius said. ``There has been re-awakening so to speak, reassessing that Malaysia should be doing well and prosper. I think that's good news and that could have good impact on the market.''

Slightly a month later, May 20 he finds our market is not as attractive compare to others. The market seems to be fairly valued when comes to plantation and property stocks(could be referring to sector leaders).

KUALA LUMPUR: Emerging markets guru Dr Mark Mobius said its fund is “definitely” looking at Malaysia and plantation stocks were “the obvious choice” for investors looking at the country, although there are also dampeners.

“The problem here is some of the good plantations are very illiquid. It is very difficult to get the stock, number one. Number two, pricing has now gone up a lot, so a lot of the growth and demand in biofuel and so on is already in the price,” Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management Ltd, told reporters on the sidelines of the World Congress of Information Technology (WCIT) 2008 here yesterday.

“We fear that we’ve reached a peak (on Malaysian property prices). The choices are very wide so there are no particular bargains in Malaysia at this stage,” Mobius was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.

When I look at his statements in two different periods seems to be contrasting. He is kind of non-committal this time.

“We will definitely be looking at Malaysia, but it’s hard for us to find something that is compelling compared to what we’d find in India, China, the Philippines or elsewhere,” Mobius said.

For him to qualify as bargains could be at the level of 1100 - 1150 level, 1300 is getting expensive, I'm guessing 1400 will be out of question unless growth accelerates.