Apparently deciding to confront the source of his gloom, a reader recently asked to see a list of Internet stocks that have lost the most value this year.
We’ll give our moribund friend what he requested, but what we won’t give him is false hope. That’s why we’re not ready to proclaim the volatile market activity of the past week to be the long-awaited bottom for free-falling ‘Net stocks.
Granted, there are positive signs. In the week of trading ended Monday, 54% of Internet stocks followed by our Internet StockTracker newsletter had posted gains. It’s the first time since early September that a majority of ‘Net stocks have advanced.
But almost half of the week’s gainers were of the single-digit variety, and even the highest climbers barely made a dent in their losses. Intraware, for example, topped all ‘Net stocks with a 61% gain for trading in the week ended Monday. Inspiring, but it still leaves ITRA down 46% for the past month and 93% for the year to date.
Further, in the two days of trading since Friday’s close, most ‘Net stocks have lost ground. So while the rate of descent clearly has slowed, it’s too early to conclude that Internet tickers are recovering, especially with several more days of potentially dour earnings reports ahead. Those of you on the sidelines can probably wait a bit more without losing out on any upside.
Now on to the rather large downside. First, a stunning fact: 57 of the nearly 300 Internet stocks trading since Dec. 31 – about one of five – have dropped in value at least 90% this year.
None, however, have lost more than the companies listed below. Here are the 10 biggest losers of the year, in terms of percentage, among Internet stocks:
Company Ticker %Loss PlanetRx.com-97.5% eFax-97.2% U.S. Interactive-97.2% E-Stamp-96.9% InterWorld-96.8% MyPoints.com-96.8% Talk City-96.5% BigStar Entertainment-96.1% quepasa.com-96.0% Luminant Worldwide-95.7%
