for Bermudian investors with some cash to spare to invest in bargain-basement stock, according to a leading portfolio manager.

Andrew Callender, portfolio manager at INVESCO Asset Management, was invited to Bermuda to speak to local investors about the state of the market, and watched as markets crashed this week.

Anne Kast of Kast Investment Management, said: "What part of `buy low -- sell high' have we forgotten?'' She said the prices of quality stocks in technology, financial services, pharmaceuticals and an array of other industries will reach multiples of what they reach today, despite, or rather because of the slump in the world markets.

She said: "I, for one, am accumulating cash, will hold my nose and jump into the market sometime in the foreseeable future.'' While sellers have dominated the stock market recently, believing that poor earnings and the weakening economy in the United States will not recover in the near future, the prospect of economic crises in other countries unnerved investors around the globe.

And Mr. Callender said this was the perfect time to take advantage of low stock prices to clear up on some of the more secure shares whose prices had dropped.

Speaking at a meeting with Mrs. Kast, Mr. Callender said: "People are selling off really high quality stock. I am not suggesting people buy the ones which have dropped by 95 percent, and some of these will undoubtably go belly up, but there are some leading companies -- the GE's and the City Groups which are very strong businesses medium term.'' He said that the bottoming out of the market may not have happened yet, but it was a good time to invest. Mrs. Kast said: "We are not going to hit the bottom yet. If people are sitting on cash, they should find out where they want to go. We may not be going to get to the bottom, but we are a long way from the top, and when it turns it will be spectacular, and if you aren't in you might miss the boat.

"You can't make money in the market if you are not in it.'' Mr. Callender was last night due to give a talk to investors and potential investors at a Kast/Fund Manager Conference at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, and said he would mainly focus on the state of world markets.

Speaking last night Mrs. Kast said: "This conference is the first time we have met with such a cloud hanging over the market place. Given the remarkable advance of share prices over the last ten years no one can really be surprised that we find ourselves in the grip of an ugly retrenchment.

"Those of us who have been around for a while knew there was a 100 percent chance it would happen, just as we know there is a 100 percent chance we will come out of it.'' She added: "It was Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson who first observed that the stock market had predicted 11 of the past four recessions.''