In an expanding global economy, the sun is rising both in the East and West for U.S. and foreign investors, according to a recent Franklin Templeton Investments global survey that polled investors across 12 countries.

The survey of more than 13,000 people found that 62 percent of all respondents plan to invest outside their domestic markets over the next decade. Of the nearly 1,050 U.S. survey respondents, almost three-quarters (73 percent) stated they believe the best investment opportunities will lie overseas as well as in the U.S. over the next 10 years.

At a media luncheon in New York yesterday, portfolio managers from the Franklin, Templeton and Mutual Series investment groups presented their outlook on global investment opportunities.

Panelists included Philippe Brugere-Trelat, executive vice president of Franklin Mutual Advisers LLC, and co-manager of the Mutual Global Discovery Fund, Mutual European Fund and Mutual International Fund; Norman J. Boersma, executive vice president of Templeton Global Equity Group and lead manger of Templeton Growth Fund and co-manager of Templeton World Fund for U.S. investors; and Par Rostom, a vice president, research analyst and portfolio manager of Franklin Equity Group and manager of the Franklin International Growth Fund.

Finding value in domestic companies, Brugere-Trelat, a 25-year veteran of the European equity markets, is a long-time practitioner of the Mutual Series approach to value investing, having begun his career with the team in 1984 under legendary investors Max Heine and Michael Price.

A noted contrarian on Europe, Brugere-Trelat said he and his team of 18 in-house analysts avoid the macro picture that shows such a grim view of Europe and instead concentrate on picking companies that are doing well and whose stock price may be low because of the negative macro issues.

Brugere-Trelat said the European sovereign crisis has created some good opportunities over the last 12 months. "A good crisis can create good opportunities," he said. "European equities are unusually cheap from a historical point of view."

European companies more focused on domestic markets may hold greater value, he said.

Sectors benefiting from domestic demand, he said, include health care, telecom, utilities and retail. In the telecom sector, Brugere-Trelat  particularly likes Vodaphone, a global provider of cellular telephony which owns 45 percent of Verizon Wireless.

He noted that southern Europe-including Greece, Portugal, Italy, Spain and other countries-face ongoing debt problems and credit issues, but that countries in the northern sphere, including Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (Benelux), as well as the UK, have remained economically robust, competitive and not credit-constrained. In fact, these countries are all experiencing faster-than-expected gross domestic (GDP) growth, he said.

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