UPDATE 2-Mauritius stock exchange hits all-time high

(Adds analyst comment, prime minister speech)

By Ed Harris

PORT LOUIS, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Mauritius' key stock exchange index, SEMDEX .MDEX, hit an all-time high of 2,010.75 points on Tuesday, up 8.56 percent from the start of the year, official data showed.

Other indexes for the Indian Ocean nation's main stock exchange, which include the SEMTRI .SEMTRI and SEM-7 .SEM7, have risen between 8.56 and 9.09 percent this year.

Last year, they surged between 53 and 81 percent driven by the banking and tourism sectors.

A lack of complex financial markets has helped shelter Mauritius from the U.S. subprime crisis, while attracting funds that are looking for a safer market, analysts say.

Net foreign investment in Mauritius' main stock market jumped 170 percent to almost 231 million Mauritius rupees ($8.1 million) in January compared with the same month last year, according to official data.

Mauritian analysts were divided on the bourse's mid-term outlook.

"They are all expected to do very well. Market sentiment is quite positive," said Vikash Tulsidas, general manager of CAC stockbrokers said of blue chip companies he said would show good results in March.

But Dider Merven, a fund manager, said anticipated good results had already been factored into prices.

"From what I know and from what I see, the market is overstretched, overvalued," he said, noting that price earning ratios for Mauritian banks were too high.

At the end of January, P/E ratios for Mauritius Commercial Bank MCBL.MZ and State Bank of Mauritius SBML.MZ were 18.28 and 17.69 respectively, according to stock exchange data.

Mauritius expects its economy to grow 6.0 percent this year, after 5.6 percent in 2007. Reforms to open and diversify the economy, which began in 2006, are showing some success, analysts say.

Talking at the opening of a World Bank office in Port Louis on Tuesday, Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam said he expected foreign direct investment to rise further this year and unemployment to fall.

Facing the end of trade preferences and increasing global competition on its traditional sugar and textile sectors, Mauritius has been ranked by groups including the World Bank as Africa's top country for economic freedom, ease of doing business and good governance. (Editing by David Cowell)