Templeton Asset Management head Mark Mobius says emerging markets are still profitable and that Thailand is a good bet now, CNBC reports.

Valuations in emerging markets are in the middle of the range, Mobius told the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand during a speech he gave there. "Things are not so cheap as they were but there are still a lot of opportunities. Things look pretty good for next year."

Three Thailand plays Mobius especially likes are energy giant PTT, third-largest lender Kasikornbank, and Siam Cement, the country's biggest industrial conglomerate.

In addition, Mobius likes BEC World and property developer Land & Houses and he says that Templeton has upped its investment in companies on Thailand's stock market, Southeast Asia's second-best performing bourse, which has climbed 17 percent during the last year.

In fact, according to Mobius, Thailand had the second-biggest weighting in Templeton's Asian Growth Fund last April, with 23 percent, behind China's 26 percent but ahead of India's 22 percent.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Thailand's benchmark index is up 41 percent from a year ago, and has risen more than 16 percent in the past three months.

On both fronts, this means the Thai bourse is outperforming every other in the region.

The gains offer a stark contrast to the mood in Bangkok in April and May, when anti-government protests and a military crackdown left about 90 dead, prompting foreign investors to sell nearly $2 billion of Thai stocks.