May was a bad month for the Redux Global ICT 100 Index. The index, exclusive to TelecomRedux, tracks the share movements of 100 global technology companies.

Last month saw a fall of 5.5% – the biggest single month’s slide since July 2004 (the R-100’s debut month). As of 31 May, the R-100 stood at 1042.92, its lowest since October last year and well off the March 2006 all-time high of 1117.49.

North America saw the biggest loss, off by 5.8%. Only three stocks of the 40 included in the R-100 ended the month in positive territory: DirecTV, Qwest and UT Starcom.

Down 5.5%, Europe underperformed in line with the Index as a whole. Just seven of the 40 European R-100 companies gained on the month: Cap Gemini, Telefónica, Telefónica Moviles, BSkyB, COLT and BT. Most of these gains were at the ‘minuscule’ end of the scale.

Asia-Pacific stocks were down 5.01%, with only DoCoMo, NTT, KDDI, China Unicom and SK Telecom ending higher, out of 20 Asian R-100 companies.

The decline across all three regions is an unusual occurrence; normally when one or more regions fall, others gain to in part offset the overall performance of the Index.

One can point to recent pressure on equity markets in general to help explain last month’s poor showing. June will tell us whether the technology sector can do anything to resist such pressure.
Jim Chalmers