Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Discover chief global strategist Barton Biggs has changed his stance on Asia's prospects, saying that it may soon be time to pick up stocks.
Mr Biggs was quoted as saying on Monday 'many markets are now down 90 per cent or more since the crisis began. This indicates to me that the bear market in Asia is in its final stages - since historically, market breaks usually don't run more than 90 per cent, even in the biggest bubble markets'.
While hardly a repeat of the 1993 'maximum bullish' call on Hong Kong, it is a significant change from the decision in late October last year to reduce the developed Asia weighting, which includes the territory, in his global portfolio to zero from 2 per cent.
That move helped to trigger a market rout and sparked a row between Morgan Stanley and its mainland joint-venture partner, China Construction Bank. Since then, the Hang Seng Index has dropped by about a third.
