Share indices in January

(By Richard Holway) SITS (SCS in FTSE-speak) was the only bright spot in the tech firmament in January. The FTSE indices are all weighted indices. In other words, the movement of the largest company in the index has a disproportionate effect. So, as BT is the biggest company in the FTSE Fixed Line Telcom index, you can understand why that Index slumped 15% in January. Capita is the biggest company in the FTSE Support Index. Capita fell 6% in Jan for no reason we can determine; hence the similar fall in the FTSE Index. The FTSE SCS Index however had a much more positive month with a near 5% gain. Look no further than its largest weighted ingredients. Autonomy was up 11.8%, Sage up 5.8% and Misys up 4.8%. They all helped to push the TechMark up 3% - again against the trend across the pond where the NASDAQ fell 6.4%.