To: Bill Harmond who wrote (41989 ) 2/23/1999 7:09:00 PM From: Glenn D. Rudolph Respond to of 164684
Internet stocks lead a technology rally on Nasdaq NEW YORK, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Internet stocks surged Tuesday, leading a technology rally after an influential Morgan Stanley analyst made bullish comments about major Internet players. The American Stock Exchange's Internet Index was up 2.8 percent to 750, a rise of 20.28 points at midday sparked by trading in shares of Amazon.com Inc. <AMZN.O>, Netscape Communications Corp. <NSCP.O> and Yahoo! Inc. <YHOO.O> among others calculated in the index. Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker was not available for comment, but a spokesman characterized her as saying the long-term outlook was "phenomenal" for companies such as Yahoo!, Amazon.com and eBay Inc. <EBAY.O>. She said those companies' fundamentals continue to be solid, and she expects favorable financial reports in March. Yahoo! soared $9.25 to $155 riding an International Data Corp. study released earlier which said the Internet portal has the most loyal base among normally fickle Web surfers, with 36 percent of its visitors considered loyal users. Yahoo offers a personalization service called My Yahoo, which allows someone to set up a home page, which acts as a starting point when they go online. Amazon.com was up $8.875 to $115.875, and eBay, which was the top net gainer Nasdaq, was up $13.50 to $292.25. Both Netscape and security software company Verisign Inc. <VRSN.O> rose after news of a deal to create an Internet security center to protect commerce and communications on the site. Netscape, which plans to debut the Netcenter Security Center by Verisign in the end of March, was up $3.25 at $78.875, and Versign was up $8.875 to $106. America Online Inc. <AOL.N> was up $3.6875 to $90.125. Sands Bros. & Co. started AOL at buy high risk, noting the rising cost of entry to the Internet business, with established players at a subsequent advantage. Internet companies made up 15 of the top 20 net gainers on Nasdaq Tuesday morning. Internet advertising firm DoubleClick Inc. <DCLK.O> was up $8.6875 at $97.25, online auctioneer uBid Inc. <UBID.O> was up $5.875 at $64.875, online broadcaster Broadcast.com <BCST.O> was up $7.375 at $77.6875. 859-1700)) REUTERS Rtr 18:32 02-23-99