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Technology Stocks : Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCW, PCWKF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (2332)	9/9/2000 3:12:35 AM
From: ms.smartest.person	Respond to of 4541

FUND VIEW-UBS sees value in Asia technology stocks zdii.com By Doreen Siow SINGAPORE, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Plenty of opportunity remains for investors in Asian technology stocks despite continued volatility in Nasdaq shares, Geoffrey Wong, the head of UBS Asset Management Singapore, said on Friday. Wong, who manages Asia ex-Japan funds of over $3.5 billion, said a huge valuation gap exists between Nasdaq stocks and Asian tech stocks. "In the last 12 months, Asian tech stocks have lagged Nasdaq by a lot. The valuation gap is very great and Asian stocks are still much cheaper," Wong said in an interview with Reuters. Samsung Electronics <05930.KS>, one of the largest Asian tech stocks with a market capitalisation of $35 billion, is selling at a price earnings multiple of about 10 times against Micron Technology <MU.N>, in the same business of high capacity memory chips but selling at about 40-50 times. Samsung ended 4,500 won higher at 244,000 on Friday. "Our view is that most of the major tech stocks on Nasdaq are very over-valued," Wong said. Among funds Wong manages is the $126 million UBS (Lux) Equity Fund - Asian Technology Fund, launched earlier this year. The fund is down 16.4 percent since its launch in March but up against the benchmark UBS Asia ex Japan Tech index maintained by Dow Jones, which is down 29.7 percent. "The sentiment turned negative a bit globally as some prominent sell-side analysts started to became a bit more cautious, though in the last few weeks sentiment seems to have turned around a bit," Wong said. Semiconductor stocks in particular have been on a rollercoaster ride since bearish comments, starting with a Salomon Smith Barney analyst back in July. "The semiconductor cycle will last a bit longer than people have expected, so the growth on the upstream of the semiconductor side should still be good." ASIA DOTCOMS OVERVALUED But he was cautious about overvalued dotcom firms and downstream companies involved in assembling mobile handsets for which margins and volumes may not meet expectations. "We are positive on some sectors and a little bit cautious on others... But overall, it is a good time to be involved," he said. Wong is particularly bullish on foundries, with the world's three biggest firms -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) <2330.TW>, United Micro Electronics (UMC) <2303.TW> and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing <CSMF.SI> -- located in Asia. TSMC ended on Friday down T$1.00 at T$124.50, UMC up T$0.50 at T$77.50 and Chartered down S$0.50 at S$12.90. "There is a competitive edge that has moved out to Asia ex-Japan. There are few comparables in the U.S.," Wong said. TSMC and UMC are the fund's top holdings. Wong said TSMC, which was trading at 40 times, is quite attractive compared with some U.S. companies less well positioned and trading at about 50 times. Wong also said Asian dotcom companies such as Chinadotcom Corp <CHINA.O> continued to be highly overvalued, which was a reason to not own any Asian dotcom stocks at the moment. "Chinadotcom is very big and they will be around for a long time. But the valuation is too much," he said. Chinadotcom ended 0/08 off at $17/07 on Thursday. Wong also said he was very underweight on Hong Kong's Internet upstart Pacific Century Cyberworks <0008.HK>. "Valuations are hugely overdone. Some sell-side analysts have put a value to their broadband TV-Web channel, NOW, at $20 billion and it does not even have any proven revenue model," he said. PCC ended Friday HK$0.65 lower at HK$13.20.