Fidelity blamed for tech crash
By Craig Tolliver, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 6:16 PM ET Nov 27, 2000
BOSTON (CBS.MW) -- Playing the blame game, FreeEDGAR.com
pointed the finger squarely at Fidelity Investments Monday for the
market's third-quarter tech-astrophy.
"As technology and telecommunications stocks crashed in the third
quarter, the nation's largest mutual fund complex was selling them
aggressively," the firm wrote in its SECrets Newsletter.
Fidelity parent FMR Corp. sold more than $1
billion each of stock in market leaders such as
Nokia (NOK: news, msgs) , Vodaphone and
Nortel (NT: news, msgs) , and more than $500
million each of Lucent (LU: news, msgs) , EMC
(EMC: news, msgs) and JDS Uniphase (JDSU:
news, msgs) , according to Alpha Equity Research,
which tracks Fidelity funds for institutional
investors.
"As the single largest player in the stock market, accounting for an estimated 15 percent of total volume, Fidelity Investments undoubtedly contributed to the market rout," FreeEDGAR said.
FreeEDGAR mines the Securities and Exchange Commission's database of filings and registrations and makes them available to investors on their Web site. As an "insider," Fidelity must file a quarterly statement of holdings, Form 13F-HR.
"FMR cut their Nokia stake in half in the third quarter. At the end of June they owned 101.7 million shares. At the end of September they had 50.2 million shares. At the end of June Nokia was selling at about $50 a share,(FMR) started selling in July, the stock got down to $37 in the first week
of August and then it rallied up a little," Alpha Equity President David O'Leary told CBS.MarketWatch.com.
"Then the sell pressure came in again in late September, their stock traded down to $40 and then collapsed in October to $27 dollars a share - which is probably when Fidelity stopped selling."
Nokia's since turned around, closing Monday at $43.63.
Blame Fidelity if you will, but also credit them for renewed interest in the company, O'Leary suggests. Fidelity's Select Wireless Fund (FWRLX: has taken in roughly $100 million since it opened in September and must "surely be a buyer of the stock," O'Leary added.
"Our work shows that there's some buy pressure in Nokia now. They may have finished selling it and are now actually a net buyer," O'Leary said.
Craig Tolliver is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com in Los Angeles.
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