Market Sentiment: Perma-Bull Warren Buffett says Japan's a Buying Opportunity

When a 7-10% drop in equity markets create so many "lifetime opportunities buying" and everybody gets on the boat to tell you to buy and not miss this opportunity, including the likes of Marc Faber, I believe it deserves to step aside and think.

What's not clear to me, it seems like Buffett missed a few market-history lessons as he still believes that markets always go up. Moreover, it's not clear or not whether Buffett owns Japanese equities or not.

March 21 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Japan’s record earthquake is a buying opportunity and he won’t sell his shares in the country as its future hasn’t been changed because of the temblor.
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“If I owned Japanese stocks, I would certainly not be selling them because of the events of the past 10 days or so,” said Buffett, speaking to reporters in the South Korean city of Daegu, where he arrived yesterday to attend a ceremony for a new factory being built by TaeguTec Ltd. “Something out of the blue like this, an extraordinary event, really creates a buying opportunity.”
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“It’ll take some time to rebuild, but it will not change the future of, the economic future of Japan,” said Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman and chief executive officer.

South Korea is a “hunting ground” for acquisitions, said Buffett, who prefers larger companies. Berkshire committed more than $35 billion to takeovers in the last two years.

“We’re ready to invest, and basically the bigger the better,” said the 80-year-old billionaire investor. “Large companies appeal to me and Korea has a number of large companies obviously, so it’s a hunting ground.”

Buffett reiterated that he is open to buying non-U.S. companies, while also saying U.S. businesses remain more likely his targets. Berkshire invested in TaeguTec through Iscar, the Tefen, Israel-based toolmaking unit.

“We do pile up cash, month by month, and we’re looking for large businesses to buy,” Buffett said. The U.S. is “the most familiar to me, so it’s most likely where we would do something.”

Here's another Bloomberg report about fund managers who are still very bullish:

March 15 (Bloomberg) The biggest decline in Japanese stocks in two years pushed valuations below levels in November, when a 19 percent rally began, luring investors who say equities will prove bargains as the country rebuilds from its largest earthquake on record.

AMP Capital Investors Ltd., which oversees about $98 billion in Sydney, raised its Japan rating to “overweight” from “neutral” yesterday after the Topix Index’s 7.5 percent tumble made its price equal to its net asset value, said strategist Nader Naeimi. Polar Capital Holdings Plc’s Japan Fund, which beat more than 85 percent of peers since 2006, bought steel and construction companies, manager James Salter said.
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“If there are no further aftershocks, I believe that in six months, you’ll turn around and find that this was a great opportunity to buy,” said Salter, head of Japan for Polar Capital, which manages $4 billion in London. “We’ve got stocks in our portfolio that are down 20 percent. Some of the reactions, I think, have been completely crazy.”

Previous related posts:

• 2011-03-18 - Marc Faber Goes Uber Bullish on Japan and Calls "Lifetime Buying Opportunity" — I respectfully disagree
• 2011-03-17 - Market Sentiment: Nobody Believes a Meaningful Decline is Likely
• 2011-03-16 - Market Sentiment: Exuberance is the Name of the Game, Analysts see in the Current S&P Decline "a very bullish opportunity”