Jim Rogers Bullish on Japan Equities on Abe’s Catalyst; “Japan is one of the few places in the world where I own shares,”
March 5, 2013 Leave a comment
Jim Rogers Bullish on Japan Equities on Abe’s Catalyst
Jim Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros in the 1970s, said he increased his holdings of Japanese shares and plans to buy more because Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will boost the economy.
“Japan is one of the few places in the world where I own shares,” Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, said at a Daiwa Securities Group Inc. (8601) equity conference in Tokyo today. “I have no plans to sell and plan to accumulate more when I can. Abe has been a catalyst and this will continue for several years.”The Topix Index (TPX), Japan’s broadest equity measure, has jumped 38 percent since Nov. 14 last year, when elections were announced and optimism grew the new government will push for aggressive monetary policy to beat deflation. The yen has weakened about 16 percent in that period, boosting the earnings outlook for exporters such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Canon Inc. (7751)
Rogers said he owns shares of Japanese tractor makers on optimism they will be more competitive abroad because of a weaker yen, as well as brokerages.
The investor also see another reason for optimism in the potential shift in asset allocation to stocks from bonds by the Government Pension Investment Fund, which has 108 trillion yen ($1.16 trillion) under management. Rogers added that he has no intention of short-selling Japanese government bonds because the central bank said it will keep purchasing the securities.
Rogers has previously been bearish on the stock market, missing out on most of the equities rally that saw the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index more than double since March of 2009.
To contact the reporters on this story: Anna Kitanaka in Tokyo at akitanaka@bloomberg.net; Toshiro Hasegawa in Tokyo at thasegawa6@bloomberg.net
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