Share indices in March

(By Richard Holway 9.00am 1st Apr 09) On both sides of the pond, March was a pretty good time to be in tech. NASDAQ had its best month in a long while with an 11% rise – but still with ground to make up as YTD NASDAQ is still down 3%.

Much rosier here in the UK where the FTSE SCS Index was up another 4%; building on earlier growth to make it 10.5% YTD. The SCS Index was helped by a 14% surge in Misys share price. Autonomy put on another 6% - that’s a massive 37% rise in 2009 YTD. Clearly a company in the right place at the right time or as Mike Lynch says “I feel like an undertaker during the Black Death”. Obviously black humour rules in Cambridge! Must also mention Microgen which put on 11% this month – they have been one of the most resistant of any SCS stocks in the last troubled year. That’s the reward you get for both having a large cash stash and being extremely cash generative. Attributes which had been out of fashion in the good days! Conversely Logica was down 7% and Sage flat-lined.
In Support Services, Capita had a volatile month – ending up largely where it started with a big dip in the middle! But Capita is still down 9% YTD which is a little difficult to explain given the wealth of good news we have heard from them. Of course, the IBS decision today (see below) could well negatively affect them in April.

Conversely, the telcom sector continued its torrid run with another 8.3% fall in fixed line – a massive 32% YTD (mainly BT which is down a massive 44% YTD) and a 1.5% drop in Mobile – 11.2% YTD (mainly Vodafone) .

With the FTSE100 on the up too (+2.5% in March) are we seeing the start of a rally or is it just a blip before it all crashes again? Thank goodness we are not equity analysts and don’t have to make that call!