Greg-
Thanks for your feedback. I was delighted that my limit order at 7.5 on KEP executed this morning (low for day is 7 7/16). Do you own any KEP? I realize that the won has been downgraded by at least one of the rating agencies in the past couple of weeks, and this probably has something to do with the weakness in KEP. To quote from Dick Davis Digest of 13 Oct. when KEP was trading at 13 7/8 (before the currency downgrade) who in turn quoted from Adrian Day's Investment Analyst, " The firm's balance sheet is very strong, though earnings were hit as the effects of the Korean slump hit the bottom line. Analysts expect strong earnings growth in the 1997-2000 period of over 20% a year. This stock is now cheap. The stock is down one-third from early June, and is a great long-term buy. It's selling at only 6 times earnings before tax and depreciation, and the New York-traded stock is down to a modest 12% premium over the local issue. (We had avoided this earlier when the foreign shares frequently traded at premiums of 100% and more.) There's no reason to expect a sudden, immediate rebound in this stock, so we suggest buying on dips, paying under $14 a share."
My Korean fiance has a brother-in-law who is an executive VP in a medium sized Korean bank. He reportedly considered KEP to be beaten down into the ground a few weeks ago, although like Day was rather dubious about any immediate upsurge in the value of the stock.
I have next to no knowledge about the Korean stock market, but pessimism abounds there, which always whets my interest. As I recall KEP traded around 11 at the end of last week, before all hell broke loose.
Regards,
Larry |
