WARSAW, June 29 (Reuters) - Emerging markets offer more upside than the developed world, with commodities and consumer-oriented stocks the top picks, Templeton Asset Management's veteran fund manager Mark Mobius said on Monday.
Positive prospects for commodities favour the Russian market and stocks, while a large domestic market driving consumer-oriented stocks marked Poland as best pick in central and eastern Europe, he said.
"We believe in buying cheap stocks and emerging markets are still cheaper than the U.S., even after the recent falls," the high-profile manager said. "At the same time emerging-market economies are growing faster."
Mobius helps manage around $24 billion as lead portfolio manager for Templeton's Emerging Markets Group. The fund holds a fifth of the sum in China against just 0.5 percent in Poland.
"We're interested in consumer-oriented stocks in Poland, which also include banks," Mobius said. "Poland is the most expensive country in terms of price to earnings ratio, but it is also the largest in the region, thus it has the biggest consumer market and... it offers best opportunities."
Poland's main index WIG20, which includes five banks, is up 3.8 percent in 2009, after being as much as 47 percent lower in February. Templeton Asset Management's executive chairman expects the market to grow 20 percent this year.
Mobius said it was time to move away from defensive stocks into commodity stocks, which "still have a long way up to go," naming Russia as the place to invest in. "Prospects are good for Russia because prospects are good for commodities," Mobius said. "And stocks in Russia are now very cheap."
Templeton Asset Management is part of Franklin Resources Inc . (Reporting by Adrian Krajewski; Editing by Dan Lalor)