Index gives investors the lead on high-tech

By CHRIS BARTON

Investors looking to ride the high-tech roller-coaster in New Zealand now have a new IT stock index to track their progress.

Launched today, 4i - the Iguana Internet and Information Technology Index - tracks the performance of New Zealand's publicly listed internet and IT-related companies.

The independent service, run by Australian listed company Solution 6, draws its constituents from 20 companies listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange's main board, three from the unlisted market and one from the New Capital Market.

The index is updated every five minutes and is available at www.4i.co.nz.

"We expect 4i to be a benchmark from which the New Zealand IT industry can be measured against the performance of the wider market," said Adam Rands, Solution 6's financial services producer and former director of Iguana.

4i is a weighted index with the stock movements of the larger listed companies having a greater effect upon the value of the index than the movements of the smaller players.

However, the weighting of larger stocks, such as Telecom and Baycorp, are limited to no more than 15 per cent.

"It removes the heavy bias from the larger capitalised stocks and allows the movements of smaller IT companies to be reflected," said Mr Rands.

The 4i website displays the latest 4i value, index stocks, each company's impact on the current day's 4i movement and a brief dossier on the activities of each company listed.

4i started at a base of 1000 in January 2000 and launched today at a value of 955.34. The index peaked at 1142.33 on March 13 and hit a low of 805.96 on May 25.

To be included in the index companies must derive (or expect to derive) the majority of their revenue from internet or IT-related business activity, be registered in New Zealand or have a significant proportion of their shareholding on a New Zealand share register.

New Zealand-based Iguana Information Services was bought by Solution 6 in November 1999 and now operates within Solution 6's e-business division.