Hi Kim, took a small position in LPGLY on a dip, could have waited a few more minutes, but it is heading up again... this just out on CBS marketwatch...
Thom Calandra's StockWatch
Live from London: A wonderful Web
By Thom Calandra, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:10 PM ET Apr 14, 1999 StockWatch Chat
Also: London Calling
LONDON (CBS.MW) -- Used to be, you could count on things in the U.K. Like pasty white bread. Warm beer. Cricket season in mid-April.
Today on CBS MarketWatch
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CBS MarketWatch Columns
Updated:
4/14/99 11:51:42 AM ET
The bread these days? Nine-grain or whole wheat. Frosty lagers from Germany and Belgium are the preferred drinks. Cricket season this week suffered a delay -- April snow.
The market? Used to be, a hot trend on Wall Street would take a year to make its way across the pond. No more. London's stock indexes, like those in the United States, are notching new highs this week.
The CMGI effect
Used to be, a London-traded issue would gain a few percent or most on a sizzling day. That was before the Internet craze. This week, Net mania is spreading like wild fire across the Atlantic. Or chicken pox, depending on your point of view.
See Net Stocks.
Call it the CMGI effect, after the U.S. Internet holding company CMG Information Holdings (CMGI: news, msgs), whose shares are red-hot. Investors everywhere want to own Internet stocks, even before they become Internet stocks.
Dixons Group, the computer retailer that came up with the brilliant idea of free Internet access for Britain, named CS First Boston to look into a Net spinoff for the unit. Its stock has doubled or so since Jan. 2.
The one that's turning heads in London now is London Pacific Group Ltd. The holding company, once a fund manager named Govett & Co., has stakes in privately-held Internet companies. London Pacific (LPGLY: news, msgs) shares have about doubled this week. In London, stocks take years to double. Or used to.
To be sure, London Pacific's London shares got a boost from the American Depositary Receipts that trade in the U.S. stock market. The Nasdaq issue's gains earlier this week appeared to lead the advance in the London stock. (London is five hours ahead of New York -- an eternity in Internet time.)
"We've invested in a number of interesting Internet companies as a part of our venture capital strategy," the company's secretary, John Grimes, told Bloomberg News. London Pacific has a Berkeley, Calif., venture capital unit.
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