Jim Rogers, the chairman of Rogers Holdings, said he only will buy Sri Lankan stocks, Bloomberg reported.
He’s also a fan of China and said he plans to keep his China holdings for several years.
The Colombo All-Share Index, Sri Lanka’s stock benchmark, has increased a whopping 60 percent this year, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index has increased 70 percent.
“Selling Chinese shares in 2009 would be like selling U.S. ones in 1909. My children were born in 2003 and 2008 and I expect them to hold my shares some day,” Rogers said.
Rogers said he increased his holdings of Chinese shares in the fourth quarter of 2008 and has avoided acquiring stocks at all in 2009.
Dimuthu Abeysekera, the director/CEO of Asha Phillip Securities Ltd, said he agrees with Rogers, the Daily News Business reported.
“Sri Lanka functions in a post conflict environment where the future potential is attractive and positive. Since the first week of May 2009 the All Share Index (ASI) gained 30 percent and we expect the indices to move up further which will be in line with the developments that take place in the economy,’’ Abeysekera said.
“However, soon after the war foreign participation was negative, in other words foreigners were the net sellers in the market. But at present (end of June and beginning July) the trend has changed. Therefore, foreigners have become the net buyers in the market.’’
Rogers said he expects to “short U.S. government bonds some day,” Bloomberg reported.
“The government is printing lots of money and borrowing even more; that’s not the basis for a sound currency. The idea that anybody would lend money to the U.S. government for 30 years at 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 percent interest is mind-boggling to me,” he said.
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