In an e-mail interview with Maeil Business Newspaper, Warren Buffett, the legendary investor and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, who will also visit South Korea on Oct. 25, expressed his positive outlook on the Korean stock market.



Buffett said, ¡°The Korean stock market a few years ago was by far the most undervalued market in the world. Since then, there has been a huge advance in the Korean market and the won has appreciated against the dollar. Nevertheless, many Korean stocks still sell at more attractive prices than stocks in other major countries.¡±



Buffett¡¯s view is quite a contrast to the market concern that Korean stocks may be ¡°overvalued¡± with KOSPI having surpassed 2,000. In fact, in terms of PER (price earnings ratio), Korean market is still undervalued as Buffett argues. According to Thomson IBES, Korean stock market posted 12.3 PER, lower than the average of emerging markets (15.0) and the average of advanced markets (14.7).



Buffett continued, ¡°It is not necessary to be able to forecast either business conditions or market fluctuations in order to do well in investing,¡± stressing the importance of having a long-term perspective on a company¡¯s business than on fluctuations of the market.



Buffett who is also optimistic about the Chinese market said, ¡°At Berkshire, we make no attempt to come up with short- or intermediate-term prospects for either the economy or the stock market since it is simply not important to us. We hold businesses that we will own forever.¡±



[Sun-young Park / KHS]


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