>>>At Fidelity, Andrew Kaplan has been taken off Fidelity Select Electronics, a fund he had managed for two years. He continues as manager of Fidelity Select Developing Communications, a post he has held since April. Matthew Grech, a semiconductor-equipment-company analyst, took Kaplan's place on June 1. The move, a Fidelity spokesman says, was just part of the "natural progression" of Fidelity analysts who move up to manage a portfolio. But fund watchers can't help noticing that Select Electronic's recent performance -- in May the fund lost 13.4 percent, while the average technology fund slipped 7.2 percent -- was in no small part due to the fact that Kaplan had 32 percent of the fund's assets in semiconductor stocks at a time when the sector was tumbling. The fund's largest holding, Micron Technology, has lost 24 percent since February. To make matters worse, Kaplan had predicted a turnaround in semi stocks in his annual report, dated February.
Grech, who is managing his first fund, will have to stop the hemorrhaging at Select Electronics. The fund's assets dropped to $1.9 billion in mid-June, down from $2.3 billion at the end of April.
From Smart Money 21 July -- for private use only.
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