Our two favourite Templeton funds

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TEMPLETON GROWTH FUND $9.39 (CWA Rating: Conservative) (Franklin Templeton Management Limited, 1 Adelaide Street East, Suite 2101, Toronto, ON. M5C 3B8. 1-800-387-0830; Web site: www.templeton.ca. Buy or sell through brokers) tries to continue the approach that paid off so well for so long under its founder and long-time manager, John Templeton. His successors aim to look for bargains, avoid fads and pay close attention to a company’s fundamentals. Templeton Growth Fund holds 38.0% of its assets in the U.S., followed by the U.K. (14.3%), Singapore (6.5%), Germany (6.0%), Switzerland (4.7%), France (4.7%), Spain (4.5%), the Netherlands (3.5%), South Korea (3.2%) and Hong Kong (2.5%). The $2.3-billion fund’s top holdings include Oracle (U.S.: software), Microsoft Corp. (U.S.: software), United Parcel Service (U.S.: package delivery), Vodafone Group (U.K.: wireless), Singapore Telecommunications, Siemens AG (Germany: electronics and electrical engineering), Kingfisher plc (U.K.: home-improvement retailer), DBS Group (Singapore: banking), Accenture plc (U.K.: consulting) and Sanofi-Aventis (Switzerland: pharmaceuticals). The fund rose 12.9% in the year ended November 30,…