Share Indices in May 08

Just for once, it has been a rather good month to be an investor in UK IT - particularly Software & Services. The FTSE IT Index was up 4.28% in May 08 but the FTSE SCS Index was up a pretty stunning 6.45% - which puts the FTSE SCS Index pretty much back were it started 2008. Continued bids (and speculation) helped, although share price rises at some of the largest constituents of the index (which is heavily weighted towards the larger companies) - like Aveva (up 22%) and Sage (up 14%) - were the main reason.

NASDAQ also did well (up 4.55% in May) but is still down 4.9% YTD. UK SCS is by far the best performer YTD of all the global indices we follow (see Table below). UK Hardware is the worse - down 22% - although the Euro Telecoms (down 20%) and Euro Tech (down 17%) Indices have done badly too.

The Holway Tech Portfolio is currently down 6.8% YTD. This is far better than Holway's Non Tech Portfolio which is down 16% YTD - mainly as a result of the awful performance of the UK banks.

Best performers in The Holway Tech Portfolio 2008 YTD have been my new investment in RCM Technology Trust (where I am an NED) which is up 8.5% (Not bad eh?), Logica up 4.7% and Blinkx up 1.8%. Worst is BT (down 17.1%) and Misys (down 14.5%). However, as I have said before, I liquidated most of my equity investments last Oct/Nov and have since held over 95% of my liquid assets in cash. Mind you, I still don't like losses - however small they might be in real terms!