Enron and on, and on
After a valiant attempt at a comeback, accountancy-related stocks hit a new low, succumbing to a market depression brought on by the Enron scandal.
The Accountancy Age/ADVFN index closed the week at 74.21, down 3.2 points on last week while the benchmark FTSE-100 skidded to end the week at 94.90.
The biggest drop was experienced by ITNet, which fell 16% over the week.
Its stock jumped slightly after news that it had sealed a four-year #18m deal with service provider Synstar, but investors are still worried about an announcement two weeks earlier in which the company trimmed its current year’s forecasts.
Misys was down 8% along with other blue-chip technology stocks as investors got the jitters as the Enron crisis caused technology stocks worldwide to slip into the red. Xansa followed the same fate. Shares slumped after rumours that broker Goldman Sachs placed 26.3 million shares in the software group.