Franklin favours Indian stocks over China equities

India offers better opportunities for equity investors compared with China as the growth potential is stronger and there are more quality Indian companies to choose from, Franklin Templeton's international chief investment officer said yesterday.

India offered a larger investment universe of about 5,000 firms whereas foreigners hoping to tap the China growth story are restricted to a smaller number of Hong Kong-listed Chinese stocks, Stephen Dover told reporters in Singapore, website of an Indian financial daily reported.

India is investible in a very broad range of companies and also a broad range of industries, but most investors have not really been able to participate in the big growth in China since 1982, Dover said. Besides the wider choice of stocks to invest in, Franklin Templeton also said India's growth trajectory was higher because of its younger population and the expected lift from large-scale infrastructure spending that had only began recently.

Dover oversees investments at Franklin Templeton's local asset management units around the world, which have about $25 billion (Dh91.8bn) in assets under management, including bonds.

The local asset management group's funds mostly carry the Franklin brandname unlike the emerging markets group headed by Mark Mobius.

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