S&P 500 may rise 70%, says Kenneth Fisher

NEW YORK: The Standard & Poor���s 500 Index is in the middle of a rally that will drive it as much as 70% above its March lows, billionaire Kenneth Fisher said.

The index has surged 28% since sinking to a 12-year low on March 9, the steepest five-week advance since 1938, according to data compiled by Howard Silverblatt, an analyst at S&P in New York.

Banks led the gain after lenders from JPMorgan Chase & Co to Bank of America Corp said they made money at the start of the year and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced plans to finance as much as $1 trillion in purchases of financial firms��� distressed assets.

���Bear market rallies are not that big,��� Fisher, 58, who oversees $28 billion as chairman of Woodside, California-based Fisher Investments Inc, said in a telephone interview. He is the world���s 647th richest person, according to a tally by Forbes magazine in March. ���Stocks are cheaper compared to long-term interest rates than they have been in anyone���s life,��� he added.

Wall Street strategists estimate that S&P 500 companies will earn a total of $47.45 a share this year, according to the average projection of forecasters surveyed by Bloomberg.