Investment guru Mario Gabelli says now is an excellent time to buy equities.

“As value investors who like to think of ourselves as aggressively watching grass grow or paint dry, we basically think this is terrific,” Gabelli told Fox News, referring to depressed stock prices.

“We’re buying good businesses at lower prices,” Gabelli says. “Some companies (are) nearly 50 percent off.”

Gabelli says he’s also looking at good cash generators and at companies that will do well because of their pricing power if inflation picks up down the road.

Gabelli cites beverage companies among those that are superb buys now.

“Clearly, China is going to a consumer-driven economy, and they love to drink, so I find companies that sell them products, like Pernod, Herradura, Remy Martin, and even Campari,” Gabelli notes.

“With a basket of those, I think you’ll make significant amounts,” he says.

The insatiable demand for whisky in China, India, and Russia is driving up prices of several popular single-malt scotches, notes Liquor Control Board of Ontario spokesman Chris Layton

"The demand from places like China, India and Russia was outstripping (the) ability to supply them," Layton told the Ottawa Citizen News.