Investors battered Internet
counters Thursday after the US’ Nasdaq Composite sank
another 123.95 points to 4582.68 while the Dow Jones
industrial average leapt 3.26%. The benchmark
Australian All Ordinaries Index was up 0.9% at midday,
lead by a surge in resource stocks.
Thin volumes and a 12.3% drop on the Nasdaq
Wednesday saw dual listed web portal Looksmart (LOK)
drop 6.55% to Aus $4.75 in the morning session.
Looksmart’s fall comes despite announcing a
partnership with US ISP FlashNet
Communications Inc. Looksmart will provide its
search and directory services to FlashNet’s 250,000
subscribers.
Technology investor Cardia Technologies Ltd. (CNN)
bucked the down turn in Net related stocks, jumping 7%
to 46 cents Wednesday morning after Ninemsn announced a
partnership with Internet insurer SafeTrade Ltd..
Cardia holds the right to subscribe to 20% of
SafeTrade stock when it lists later this half. Ecorp (ECP), which
owns ninemsn in conjunction with international
software behemoth Microsoft, wasn’t
spared from the downward turn in Internet stocks,
losing 5% in the Thursday morning session to $5.51.
Suspended mining and technology company Min-Tech 8
Ltd. (MTC) has also secured the right to 20% of
SafeTrade.
Financial content provider, Channel-e (CEL)
dropped 2.6% following the company’s announcement of a
first half after tax loss of $1.318 million with no
sales revenue. Channel-e has some impressive
joint-ventures (AFX News
Ltd. for one) on its books and some high profile
players in its management team but investors have to
ask: How far can it go without revenues?
The flood of Australian miners moving into the
technology/Internet space shows no signs of ebbing.
Yamarna Goldfields (YAM) announced Thursday that it
will invest US $2 million in US comedy portal Laugh.com, to be
launched in April. Yamarna was up 2.9% to 17.4 cents
at midday. Even a whiff of a technology investment
seems to be sending speculators into a frenzy;
Minerals Corporation Ltd. (MSC) was up this morning
after it announced it is “seeking to extend its
interests in the technology sector.”
Australian e-tailers were among the worst hit by
Thursday morning’s sell off. Wine Planet
(WIN) fell 11.9% to 40 cents in the morning session,
Jumbomall.com (JUM)
lost 4.2% and Adultshop.com
fell 3.9%. The big fall in Wine Planet stock comes as
a surprise as it was one of the best Internet
performers in Wednesday’s surly market after it
announced its first half results.