BlackRock Sees Opportunities In Oversold Mining Stocks

BlackRock Inc. (BLK), one of the world's largest investors in the resources industry, sees a "massive" opportunity in mining equities that have been hard hit in recent months but now offer compelling valuations underpinned by companies' healthy balance sheets.

"The fundamentals remain strong...what is going on in equity markets shouldn't obscure that," Catherine Raw, portfolio manager of BlackRock's natural resources equities team, said Tuesday during a briefing in Australia.

Evy Hambro, joint chief investment officer of the equities team that manages almost US$35.8 billion, said equities are significantly undervalued, having been sold along with the broader market on concerns over the global macroeconomic risks, particularly sovereign debt challenges in Europe and more recently concerns a global slowdown will extend into metals-hungry China.

-By Robb M. Stewart, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]