Shares digital

Technology stocks underperformed for the sixth time in seven years last year and an early flurry of cautious trading statements suggest 2008 could also be testing.

High performance PC component maker OCZ Technology’s (OCZ:AIM) shares crashed 26% to an all-time low of 34p when chief executive Ryan Petersen blamed slack demand in Russia and the UK for his firm’s third profit warning in the past 12 months.

Petersen’s woes were not too hard to predict after DSG’s (DSGI) downbeat comments on trading at its PC World arm just beforehand, but a second earnings miss within seven months from SimiGon (SIM:AIM) was harder to spot. The aviation simulation software developer’s shares crashed 15% to 55p after management flagged a delay in a key contract with US defence giant Lockheed Martin (LMT:NYSE).

Order slippages also forced a first warning since May 2007’s 62p flotation from e-learning software expert NetDimensions (NETD:AIM), and drove the Hong Kong based firm’s shares down 42% to 25.4p.

But it has not all been bad news. The shares of BATM Advanced Communications (BVC:AIM) marched 15% higher to 35.5p when the broadband equipment provider announced it expects to exceed analyst expectations for 2007.

Shares says:

BUY BATM Advanced Communications

HOLD NetDimensions, OCZ Technology

AVOID SimiGon

by: Russ Mould