The R-100, our unique index of 100 global technology companies, dipped last month after recording a slight rise in June. The R-100 closed at its lowest since October 2005. The 31 July figure was 1034.85, down 1.01% on June's 1045.35 close.

Once again, the suggestion of stability is misleading. Asia-Pacific stocks gained 3.5%, but this was more than offset by falls of 1.9% and 2.1% in EMEA and the Americas respectively.

In Europe/Middle East/Africa, gainers outnumbered decliners but the damage was ultimately done by heavyweight PTOs and vendors including the German trio of DT, SAP and Siemens. In the Americas, carriers continued to perform well as did a handful of vendors, but this was undone by steep losses among most NASDAQ-quoted 'new economy' stocks (Apple, Microsoft and Oracle were honourable exceptions).

The rise in the Asia-Pacific component of the R-100 was also the result of a 'mixed bag'. In Japan, NTT and KDDI rallied a performance that was otherwise mainly down. Elsewhere in the region, China Mobile steamed ahead and was ably supported by Singapore Telecom, Telstra and Samsung who all posted moderate gains.

The July R-100 is the first since the half-yearly recalibration of the Index at the end of June. This saw the departure of Telefónica Moviles and O2 (both of whose shares are now rolled into Telefónica of Spain) as well as UT Starcom, which dropped (and remained) below the US$1.5bn market cap threshold.

They have been replaced by MTN of South Africa and MTC of Kuwait in the expanded EMEA portion of the Index, and by America Movil in the expanded Americas portion. For a full list of current R-100 companies, click here.

It remains to be seen whether these new entrants, each of which operates mobile services in developing markets, will breathe new life into the Index. At least they are being given their chance.
Jim Chalmers