Mobius Upbeat On Asia

Asia is the best place in the world to buy shares, despite its recent stock market rallies, fund manager Mark Mobius said on Wednesday. Mobius, who runs the $15 billion Emerging Markets Fund of US group, Templeton Worldwide said Asian markets could rise very sharply in the short term as foreign investors poured back into the region. But he said bear markets usually last a few years and there would be much more bad news to come before the end of the Asian crisis. "Asia has tremendous opportunities," he said. "The currencies have gone down so far they are severely under-valued at these levels." "I think what probably is going to happen in the next few months is that the market is going to run away. And (Asian stocks) are going to become expensive again, suddenly."