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Dollar will further weaken: Buffett

SEOUL: US billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Thursday he expects the dollar to continue weakening and he is ‘still negative’ on the currency.

But Buffett was upbeat on South Korean stocks during his first visit to the country, saying he is interested in buying into big companies here and elsewhere in Asia.

“I don’t think there’s a bubble in South Korean stocks,” Yonhap news agency quoted him as saying in the southern city of Daegu. South Korea’s main stock index has gained 37 percent so far this year.

Buffett said his investment firm Berkshire Hathaway had bought shares in undervalued local companies such as steelmaker POSCO, Kia Motors, Hyundai Steel and Shinyoung Securities.

Buffett is the world’s second richest man with assets of $52 billion, according to Forbes magazine. His investment decisions are followed worldwide.

Berkshire Hathaway, based in Omaha, Nebraska, owns more than 70 businesses and has some 100 billion dollars’ worth of stock and bond investments.

Buffett flew on his own jet to Daegu to visit Taegutec, a metal firm specialising in tungsten. Berkshire last year bought an 80 percent stake in Iscar Metalworking, an Israel-based toolmaker which owns a controlling stake in Taegutec.

A city spokesman said Mayor Kim Beom-Il personally welcomed Buffett, who was to leave in the afternoon, and took him through the city on a motorcade. He lunched with some 80 local businessmen and bankers, media reports said.

In an email interview with Seoul-based Maeil Business Newspaper Sunday, the billionaire said South Korean stocks are still attractive despite some analysts’ concerns that they may be overvalued.

“The Korean stock market a few years ago was by far the most undervalued market in the world,” Buffett was quoted as saying.

“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.” afp

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