Back from an investment-finding trip to Russia, EmergingMoney.com founder Tim Seymour shared a few major themes he found.
1. Look beyond oil.
Seymour said on Monday that Russian oil stocks remained cheap but urged a look at consumer names, especially since inflation, “like in the rest of emerging markets, is potentially at record lows.” He also predicted energy and education will fuel economic growth over the next 20 years.
For now, stocks Seymour liked include Yandex, , Vimpelcom and Mobile TeleSystems, the latter two being among “the biggest names in Eastern Europe cellular, and names that I think trade at a very interesting valuation.”
Mail.ru also benefitted from the Facebook “halo effect” because the company owns 2.9 percent of the pre-IPO company.
2. Russians aren’t keen on austerity.
“In Russia, they are looking at Europe and saying, ‘Look, fiscal austerity is actually a bad thing.’ I viewed a panel where actually Vladimir Putin sat with Michael Milken, Paul Krugman, the head of Sberbank, and they had a very intellectual economic discussion,” he said.
The main conclusion?
“Austerity right now will kill Europe, will create asset-priced deflation, and this is the worst thing that Europe can do right now — and, Russians believe, a little stimulus goes a long way.”
3. Lastly, politics.
Putin looked likely to win his re-election bid when voters head to the polls March 4, probably in a run-off election.
“Either way, Western media is much more consumed with this than Russian media,” he said.
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Trader disclosure: On Feb. 6, 2011, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC’s "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Terranova is long GOOG; Terranova is long JOY; Terranova is long TRLG; Terranova is long AXP; Terranova is long MUB; Terranova is long LQD; Terranova is long SBUX; Terranova is long CNX; Terranova is long SU; Terranova is long OXY; Terranova is long MA; Terranova is long MCD; Terranova is long SNDK; Terranova is long EMC; Terranova is long IBM; Terranova is long VRTS; Seymour is long AAPL; Seymour is long BAC; Seymour is long INTC; Seymour is long YHOO; Adami owns C; Adami owns GS; Adami owns MSFT; Adami owns AGU; Adami owns NUE; Adami owns INTC; Adami owns BTU; Kelly is long TLT; Kelly is long SPY calls; Kelly is long SPY puts; Nations is long SPY; Nations is long BAC; Nations is long C
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