Mobius Still an India Bull on Growth, Valuations After Attacks

India’s first terrorist attack against foreigners has done nothing to dent Mark Mobius’s confidence in the stock market of the world’s second-fastest growing major economy. While Mobius says stocks may fall when trading resumes in Mumbai, the executive chairman of San Mateo, California-based Templeton Asset Management Ltd. is bullish because the economy is still “vibrant” and the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index is valued near the cheapest level on record relative to profit. AMP Capital Investors also expects any declines spurred by the attacks on two luxury hotels in India’s financial capital to be short-lived. Exchanges shut yesterday after militants targeting Americans and Britons stormed into the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel and the Oberoi Trident complex. At least 101 people were killed and 290 injured. India’s stock-index futures fell 2.4 percent yesterday in Singapore. “It’s a fast-growing economy and we can’t allow this kind of incident to sway our decisions regarding where we want to invest,” Mobius, 72, said in a Bloomberg Television interview from Hong Kong. “India will rise from this and prosper.” The assaults were the latest blow to investors after the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression sparked this year’s 56 percent drop in the Sensex stock index, the biggest annual decline on record.