The Redux Global ICT-1000 Index drooped by 0.27% in April, down to 1104.13. That’s a second consecutive decline which leaves the R-100 down from its 03 March record high of 1117.49. Microsoft’s Friday fall took the index down by nearly 10 points. Blame Bill. Microsoft’s implosion has taken US$33.5bn out of the R-1000 in just four weeks. 

Regionally, this month’s stock movements were quite weak in the 'developed' world.

Europe was down 0.51%: Nokia, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone were big advancers: everyone else was weak or vapid.

North America was off 1.91%. AT&T and Motorola looked weak; Cisco, Dell and EBay looked awful. Oracle and Google looked superb; while Intel looked nippy.

In Asia, stocks were up in Japan and down in Korea: with others in China looking good, the combined rise was 6.5%.This was not quite enough to take the R-100 as a whole upwards. Next month should see the comeback. Maybe the smart-arses in Europe and America can now put their houses in order.
Jim Chalmers