Why Jim Rogers is not buying stocks now

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Q: From the emerging and Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRIC) basket, what would be your top pick then right now in terms of markets?

A: I wouldn't buy any of them. I would never buy the Russian market. The BRIC is some kind of an artificial thing, which some marketing people put together. I would not ever buy the Russian market. I own China. Brazil is a natural resource-based economy and it is being better managed these days and it has been in the past. So Brazil probably has a good future though I don't own any Brazilian stocks. The Indian stock market has run up a lot in the last year or so. So I don't think I would buy it either. I am not buying shares anywhere in the world as we speak.

Q: What about gold?

A: I own some gold and I am optimistic about the price of gold but I don't think I would buy it either. The gold is near its all-time high, I think I would rather buy silver for instance if I had to buy a precious metal. However, I am not buying either at the moment. I certainly would not sell any precious metals - if they go down, I plan to buy more and maybe a lot more.

Q: How is the fund flow situation looking at least for our markets - there is a lot of appetite from foreign investors but in general how is the mood looking across that front?

A: I am not buying any emerging markets (EMs). If I were to buy EMs - I had recently gone to Sri Lanka to look at it as an EM. I have not bought anything there but the Sri Lanka market has been extremely strong in the last year. Most EMs have been very strong in the past year after the collapse or the fall of 2008, most EMs have gone up a lot. I don't like to buy anything that has gone up a lot. I am very worried about the Western economy, I don't think that the problems are solved in the West and if you start seeing more problems in the West, it is going to have an effect on most markets around the world as certainly some of the EMs. The EMs, which have a lot of raw materials or commodities would probably do better than the others but again even they will be affected if we have more problems in the West.