Tech firms set to make further gains

By ALison Wright, investment manager at Britannic Asset Management Technology investors have witnessed a 55% rebound in the Nasdaq index since October 2002. Over the next six to 12 months, we believe we will see further gains, albeit of a much lesser magnitude. Recent gains are easier to rationalise in terms of behavioural factors than on fundamentals. IT spending growth is expected to rise modestly this year following a 1% decline in 2001 and flat spending in 2002. The Gartner group is currently predicting an increase of 5.8% in 2003 with 6.7% in 2004/5. While the latter for...