Not much green to be seen
The most notable development in the tech sector since our last HEXUS.sharewatch has been the launch of new generations of GPUs (graphics processing units) from both NVIDIA and AMD/ATI.
NVIDIA announced the GeForce GTX 280, which claimed the overall GPU performance leadership, as well as the GTX 260. Soon after AMD's graphics arm - ATI - announced its Radeon HD 4800 series, which aims to offer superior value for money in the mid-range.
Share prices at the end of last week would seem to imply that markets are keener on AMD's offering than NVIDIA's, with the former's shares rising by 3.2 percent and the latter's falling by an alarming 16 percent.
Elsewhere Yahoo! announced it had called the whole thing off with Microsoft and ran to Google's warm embrace. This hasn't gone down well with many executives, who are leaving in droves, and the market, which has knocked nearly 20 percent of its share price.
The only big gainer this month has been Dell, implying its nascent channel strategy is paying off. And talking of channel, distributors Avnet and Ingram Micro have bucked the downward trend, but not Tech Data.
| Company | Listing | Share Price 18/4/08 | Share Price 5/5/08* | Share Price 29/5/08 | Share Price 20/6/08 | 22-day change* | Market cap (bn) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD | AMD | 6.11 | 6.16 | 6.77 | 6.99 | 3.2% | 4.24 |
| Apple | AAPL | 161.04 | 181.89 | 186.69 | 175.27 | -6.1% | 154.52 |
| Avnet | AVT | 27.54 | 27.59 | 29.00 | 29.15 | 0.5% | 4.38 |
| Dell | DELL | 19.47 | 19.24 | 21.81 | 23.40 | 7.3% | 47.29 |
| GOOG | 539.41 | 596.61 | 583.00 | 546.43 | -6.3% | 171.63 | |
| HP | HPQ | 48.18 | 48.36 | 46.91 | 45.64 | -3.1% | 112.56 |
| IBM | IBM | 124.40 | 123.18 | 129.71 | 122.74 | -5.4% | 168.58 |
| Ingram Micro |
IM | 16.81 | 17.32 | 17.90 | 18.00 | 0.6% | 3.03 |
| Intel | INTC | 22.55 | 23.37 | 23.14 | 22.37 | -3.3% | 128.14 |
| Microsoft | MSFT | 30.00 | 29.93 | 28.31 | 28.23 | -0.3% | 262.91 |
| NVIDIA | NVDA | 19.02 | 22.47 | 23.52 | 19.76 | -16.0% | 10.96 |
| Tech Data |
TECD | 33.39 | 34.79 | 36.62 | 34.71 | -5.2% | 1.84 |
| Yahoo! |
YHOO | - | 23.02 | 27.07 | 21.99 | -18.8% | 30.25 |
| Dow | .DJI | 12849.36 | 12999.83 | 12646.22 | 11842.69 | -6.4% | NA |
| NASDAQ | .IXIC | 2402.97 | 2470.21 | 2508.32 | 2406.09 | -4.1% | NA |
| FTSE 100 | .FTSE | - |
6215.50 |
6068.10 |
5620.80 | -7.4% | NA |
*All prices are those at close of trading on the date specified, except 5/5/08 when we quoted prices and market caps at 14:30 GMT
