ROUNDUP: London TMT stocks in the week to June 29

Indices

The week began quietly with all eyes on Wednesday's much anticipated US interest rate decision, with the consensus view pointing to a further 50 basis point cut. With hot weather and the start of Wimbledon it was not surprising to see a dull day's trading in London which saw the FTSE 100 and AIM both fall by 3 points while the techMARK slipped by 7.

Downward pressure on the UK indices was exacerbated by profit warnings from investment bank Merrill Lynch and consultancy CAP Gemini. Expectations of further high-profile revenue warnings to come sent stocks on both sides of the Atlantic into freefall with a 102 point slide for the FTSE 100 and the techMARK decreasing by 64 points. Even the normally languid AIM was hit by a 22 point tumble.

Some pptimism returned on Wednesday with a 52 point rise for the FTSE 100, while the techMARK also managed to claw back some of the previous day's losses with a 19 point rise. AIM, however, continued its poor week with a further 2 point reduction.

Initial disappointment at the 25 basis point cut in US interest rates threatened to send UK stocks further southwards until US markets opened in positive territory. The FTSE 100 managed to close the day with a 30 point rise with the techMARK just behind it with a 23 point jump. AIM could not stop its recent slide, registering a further 25 point drop.

The confusing saga of Microsoft break-up took another turn with a reprieve being granted while the US supreme court re-evaluates its position. The news helped buoy some US TMT stocks, which along with the interest rate cut helped the Nasdaq to a 5% rise over the week as by the time the UK markets closed. The FTSE 100 put out a 4 point rise to finish the week down just 0.4%, while the techMARK also made an end of week rally of 10 points, but still ended with a 1% fall over the week. AIM made it a whole week in negative territory with a small 0.1 point slip sending it down 4%.

Capitalisation

In terms of market capitalisation, the netimperative.com core internet sector registered a 3% fall in the combined market value of its constituents compared with a 2.7% increase in the all sectors total, which managed a 10.5bn combined gain.

Only one of the constituent categories of the core internet sector managed to post a gain, as opposed to two last week, with the enabling technology category gaining 4% to end with a combined market cap of 4.2bn, a 180.7m increase. The week's biggest faller was once again e-commerce, with a 12% drop to 469.3m.

The percentage of core internet sector stocks trading above their 13-week average fell for a third consecutive week, going from 30.2% to 25.1%.

Sectors

Software: 4.1% fall. Orchestream lost 32% in a week that saw the end of the lock-in period for those that control 58% of the company's share capital. CMS Webview followed with a 28% tumble despite director Clive Furness making his first purchase of 110,000 shares. Digital security specialist Baltimore dropped to a new low following the week's 30% drop due to concerns fuelled by US rival Symantec issuing a profit warning as well as Baltimore's cash position and confidence in the management. Contract wins from the BNFL and The National Health Service Information Authority helped Knowledge Management Software rise 3%. Unstructured data management technology developer Autonomy announced a contract with the US department of labour but still fell back 7%. Riversoft lost 5% following the launch of its new IP software, RiverSoft Network Management Operating System and Fault Manager Version 3. The week also saw the suspension of two OFEX companies, both stating that they were in merger/acquisition talks, although not with each other; Active Intranet was down 2% before being suspended while Halcyon Internet showed no movement on 17.5p

Enabling Technology: Up 4.3%. Spirent leapt 27% after releasing a trading update that talked of ‘stability in trading'. Spirent also announced its intention to list it shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Israeli-based but London listed streaming technology specialist Emblaze saw a 23% loss despite announcing a announcing a US$15m licensing deal with Alphacell as well as investing US$6.4m in the company for a 19.8% stake. The company also released a trading update saying that trading was in line with expectations but was, none the less, still downgraded by broker WestLB Panmure. RTS Networks fell back 7% after announcing the creation of a common Mobile Application Framework and a cross-selling agreement with Swedish based telecoms company Colony101. ID Data was another to fall with a 4% drop despite results showing a ‘promising outlook' for the first half of the current year. The company also announced a 2 million m-commerce SIM contract with South African-based Prism Holdings.

Investment: Down 3.6%. Durlacher collapsed by 25% to a new low in a week which also saw Bizzbuild, in which Durlacher hold a 13% stake, collapse 46%. EnterpriseAsia slid 4% after it was revealed that AIM-listed property company Artisan, headed by Stephen Dean who had made an unsuccessful raid for the company, had sold its 28.1% stake for 3.24, a premium of 135%. I-spire remained on 22.5p with the company doubling its stake in Australia-based b2b online travel group Pacific International to 73.1%. The company also released results with a statement saying that it intends to increase holdings in the internet sector “where appropriate”.

Internet Services: 5.5% loss. Virtual Internet suffered the category's biggest fall with a 38% drop after results showed an increase in losses and concerns over the growth of the web hosting division. A doubling of losses as well as the resignation of the company's CEO was behind Vianet's 15% fall. XKO completed a hat-trick of results related fallers with a 17% drop after year-end figures mentioned ‘challenging trading conditions' and showed pre-tax losses rising to 19.6m from 6.2m the previous year. Mobile Future was one of the few risers with a 1%increase after announcing a three-year deal with The Woolwich, to provide a managed modem service for The Woolwich's Open Plan WAP banking service. Access and hosting services group Easynet was up 4% before being suspended after announcing that it was to be reversed into by ipsaris, the broadband network 92% owned by electronics giant Marconi.

E-services: 3.8% decrease. Countyweb.com jumped 27% with several directors instilling confidence in the stock by topping up their holdings following a profit warning at the beginning of the month. Online and offline directories and classifieds company Scoot collapsed 58% to a new low after announcing it had insufficient working capital for the next 12 months and was planning to make a further 285 redundancies. Scoot also announced the ‘resignation' of founder and chief executive Robert Bonnier. Time2learn lost 15% in a week that saw the company announce that it was in discussions to purchase an established e-learning company.

Content: 4% fall. Digital Classics posted a 7% gain following the company's announcement that its broadband internet service has started charging viewers on a pay-per-view basis and also announced the launch of its digital satellite TV channel. Teamtalk fell 4% following the acquisition of satellite broadcaster Hampson Radio for a consideration of 1.5m.

E-commerce: 15.4% drop. Bikenet tumbled 26% with the company stating it is in “early stage enquiries” about reverse takeovers or the merger of its business following the release of results which were hit by the unexpected substantial downturn in the bike sales market in the UK this year.Lastminute.com fell 4% despite announcing a content and e-commerce deal with Yahoo! The week also saw an announcement from Opodo, the travel portal created by nine leading European airlines that include British Airways and Aer Lingus, which said it is due to launch at the end of the year.

Games: 0.1% down. Gameplay lost 25% following the departure of another two directors as the company continues to wind down its operations. SCI Entertainment dropped 13% with interim results showing pre-tax losses of 6.7m on a turnover of 1.6m.

Web Development: 12.7% fall. IS Solutions slumped 45% after admitting to a severe downturn in short term prospects in the UK, with the company blaming the reduction or deferral of projects by clients. Nettec also fell sharply, ending the week down 15% after announcing that chairman and founder Jeremy White would be resigning at the end of the month as well as issuing a profit warning for the full year.

E-business: Down 1.6%. Emondo collapsed 51% following the release of a profit warning that revealed that the upcoming results would show a ‘significant loss'. The company also said that it was in talks, which ‘may lead to a significant injection of capital, failing which the accounts may not be unqualified.' Horizon Technology slipped back 22% after acquiring a part of UK based eNet Systems for 815,000. Managing a 15% increase was OFEX-listed theoilsite.com following the release of pleasing results in line with expectations. Pan-European online equities market Virt-x rose 10% following a successful first week of trading on its blue chip equities market. J2C rose 6% following the release of results that outlined plans for the return of up to 35m of its cash to shareholders and the closure of all but one of its businesses.

Marketing: 5.6% loss. Tempus closed down 5% following a downgrade by HSBC from ‘add' to ‘hold'.

Infrastructure: 3.7% rise. Redstone descended a further 23% following the placing of 2.6b shares at 1p each in order to save the company. Redstone also revealed the resignation of CEO Graham Cove. Thus also fell to a new low as a result of this week's 13% drop. Colt managed a 4% gain after the purchase of French value added services integrator Fitec for a maximum consideration of 17.7m.

Bricks and mortar: 1.3% fall. WPP rose 6% as it continued on its acquisition trail with the purchase of QCi Assessment Limited for an undisclosed fee. WPP also issued an upbeat trading statement saying that the company's operating margins are in line with its 15% target. Carphone Warehouse also issued a positive trading update that revealed that connections for the twelve-week period to 23 June had risen 23% compared to last year, sending its shares up 3%.

Incumbent Media: 1.2% fall. Informa shares fell by 23% following the release of a trading statement, which backed up a recent downgrade from ABN Amro and revealed that due to the slowdown in the telecoms sector the company's overall growth targets were unlikely to be met. Informa also announced a 5% reduction in staff.