Last month’s avowed hopes that April
could not be crueller than a downbeat March performance were sadly
misplaced. Redux? What Redux?
The Redux Global ICT 100 Index (R-100)
dipped again last month, falling to lows not seen since September 2004.
As of 29 April, 2005, the index had fallen to 942.90, down 3.15% from the 973.62
registered on 01 April, 2005. This marks the fourth consecutive month
of decline, following four consecutive months of growth at the tail-end
of 2004.
Of the 40 European stocks in the R-100, only three registered gains for
the month: OTE and Cosmote of Greece, along with Sweden’s Ericsson.
Overall, European R-100 shares were down 4.3%.
In the North American market, a string of heavyweight gainers —
companies like Intel, Juniper, Microsoft, Google, Motorola, SBC and
BellSouth — were dragged back by a general decline almost everywhere
else. The net performance of the 40 American stocks in the R-100 was
-2.1%.
Asia-Pacific saw a loss of 4.4% for the month. All ten of the R-100
stocks in Japan recorded falls, with a cumulative decline of of more
than 7% on the month. This was only partially offset by HK-based shares
such as Hutchison, China Mobile and China Unicom.
The year-to-date figures, while hardly awe-inspiring, do help to put
last month’s numbers into perspective. In the four months since 01
January, 2005, the R-100 as a whole has tumbled by 8.2%. In this first
trimestre, the European basket has fallen by 5.3%; North America is
down nearly 11%; and Asia has lost 31% of its turn-of-year value.
Setting aside the Asian market, which has seen exceptional
month-on-month volatility (notably in Japan and Korea) for almost a
year now, there are grounds for cautious optimism in Europe (turgid and
unspectacular, but hanging in there) and the US (where the largest
stocks are holding up marginally well).
Now for the May flowers?
Jim Chalmers
|
R-100 Index 
