Schwab Is Buying at Lower Prices Himself

Charles Schwab, co-chief executive and founder of the world’s largest discount-brokerage network, said Monday that he is buying blue-chip and technology stocks.

In an interview at his company’s Impact ’98 conference in Orlando, Fla., Schwab said that “we have seen the worst of” the bear market and of “the extreme emotionalism” that hurt equities this year.

Schwab said that over the last several months, he has been taking advantage of declining stock prices of prominent companies, buying shares of Gap, Intel, Cisco Systems and PeopleSoft.

His company, Charles Schwab Corp., said Monday that it is introducing a series of index funds intended to attract business from financial planners and other investment managers.

The San Francisco-based financial services giant intends to step up its efforts to secure a greater volume of business from financial planners and others who manage assets of clients. In the past, Schwab had focused on courting individuals.

Pursuing financial planners marks a “revolution” in the company’s attempt to “re-create the full-service brokerage business,” Schwab said.

The three new funds are Institutional Select S&P; 500, intended to follow the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index; Institutional Select Large-Cap Value Index, designed to track the S&P; 500/BARRA Value index; and Institutional Select Small-Cap Value Index, which will track the S&P; Small-Cap 600/BARRA Value index. They are expected to be launched Feb. 1.