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To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (47591)	3/27/1999 12:15:00 PM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

>> but since I don't have any free cash right now << Michelle here's an idea before I have to go and play golf. Start a company and call it Michelle.com. Just the fact that your a women will help. We'll send you to MS and they'll get you the $cash your looking for. They'll also take you public and then we'll be able to buy a piece of you too.:-) Ps Hows LA? Clouds down here from ocean will burn off soon. A beautiful day 68-70f is forecast,in San Diego. The very best climate in the whole wide world. A nice sat-sun to all.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (47591)	3/27/1999 8:12:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

New-look FTSE indices set to lure investors to IT By Elaine Hardcastle LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) - Classification changes for FTSE indices next Thursday could force professional investors who are underweight in information technology stocks to finally wake up to Britain's fastest growing sector, strategists said on Friday. Research by Dresdner Kleinwort Benson's strategy team shows that the IT industry is one of the least loved sectors of British pension funds who are 40 percent underweight, despite the industry having the highest prospective growth rate of the entire UK market at 23 percent. The investment preferences of pension funds and other institutions are crucial to the performance of the UK stock market as they own more than 50 percent of British equities. The change in how companies will be categorised next week will mean the promotion of IT stocks from a sub-sector to an industry group in its own right. FTSE International which manages the indices hopes the changes will make it easier for investors to compare performances within each sector, between sectors and across national boundaries. It will also become much harder for institutions to continue to ignore the biggest growth areaa in the UK market. "There is no other sector performing anywhere near the kind of multiple IT stocks are on. Any fund which doesn't have the appropriate weighting in the IT sector will end up underperforming and having to explain why," said Richard Holway, and independent IT industry analyst. Vanessa James, UK equity portfolio manager at Legal and General says the type of investor currently underweight in the sector are those seeking value, scared off by high price/earnings multiples of 50 times. "There are two types of investors, value investors would say the ratings of these stocks are much too high, but growth investors (which includes L&G) have holdings because they believe the potential for profits growth justifies the rating." "It is a judgment on the price you are prepared to pay for expected growth," said L&G's James. "But you have to be aware that it is a fast growing sector, and it's dangerous to ignore." At present, institutions can attain their sector holdings by being overweight in support services such as Hays <HAS.L> and Rentokil <RTO.L> while having little actual exposure to IT. But the new industry grouping will make it harder for funds to ignore IT. The revamped group will be sub-divided into software and services with 33 constituents, and hardware with just four. The bigger software and services sector will then be split again into three parts, one of which is Internet stocks. The entire IT industry group will have a weighting of about 1.7 percent of the All-Share with the software and computer services component contributing about 1.5 percent. The latter will include FTSE 100 constituent Misys <MSY.L> along with Sema <SEM.L>, Logica <LOG.L>, Sage <SGE.L> and CMG <CMG.L>, all of which have a market capitalisation of more than two billion pounds. The sector weighs in at 22 billion pounds. But pension funds may argue that it is safer to place their bets on bigger international companies and basic industries which are more familiar such as utilities and industrials. Institutions are overweight in oil exploration and production, packaging and aerospace, according to Kleinwort Benson. "The pressure on institutions to own things is when they are taking a big bet on the market," said Steve Wright, a strategist at Credit Suisse First Boston. "Oils, telecoms, banks and pharmaceuticals together make up about 45 percent of the All-Share index, so it's vital to get the weighting right in those sectors, or it could really hurt." On the other hand the tiny Internet sector will initially house just seven small companies, five of which are listed on AIM, the alternative investment market. Only Gresham Computing <GHT.L> and Dialog <DLG.L> boast a listing on the...