Apple is now the Mastodon of Nasdaq 100 15

"A collective folly", "an extraordinary moment", "a demented period." Ten years after the Summit of the dot-com bubble, market professionals who were then in exercise still have eyes that glow. Remember. On 10 March 2000, the euphoria is at its worst. Technology stocks Nasdaq index reached its all-time, to 5.048,62 points at the end. The CAC 40 affect its high point, a few months later, in September 2000, approaching 7,000 points.

But a decade later, stock balance is hardly flattering, if not catastrophic. The Nasdaq composite index has lost about 54 of its value, the CAC 40 is still 44 from its record level. Many companies "" have disappeared, and millions of investors shy away from markets, sickened.

While some major indices such as the Dow or the S & P 500 have managed to achieve new records in 2007, the Nasdaq, as the Parisian market, no are failed. With the "sub-prime" crisis and the collapse of Lehman Brothers, scholarships have suffered a new brutal blow, handing on the front of the stage the flaws of the market. These ten years have been qualified "lost decade" by many investors. The annualized return of the MSCI World is close to zero on the Decade, according to calculations by the London Business School published in the famous Yearbook of Credit Switzerland. If the actions are better than the obligations since 1900, it has not been the case between 2000 and 2009, where the differential risk between stocks and bonds is negative.

The high cost of the market at the time explains, in large part, disappointing performance. Evidenced by Amazon, valued then 85 times the sales, to $ 50 billion! E-commerce giant has recently exceeded this symbolic threshold in terms of capitalization, but this time, with a turnover of nearly $ 25 billion. "In 2000, it was thought to a new paradigm: applied to mortgage - its that would appear totally surrealistic in the Jurd ', remembers Pierre-Yves Gauthier, co-founder of AlphaValue, who was responsible for research of Credit Lyonnais Securities Europe (HBSC) teams.". In the models, it accounted for future users of the Internet. It had even tried to integrate the airline loyalty points! "Even better. "The market has given valuations of winners to everyone, forgetting that there were... also losers in every technological innovation", says Stefan Slowinski, Assistant to the head of the research of Société Générale and former analyst specialized technologies in San Francisco.

Since then, many companies have disappeared, and many start-up companies have never failed to take off. Also, the portrait of the Nasdaq today has nothing to do with that of ten years ago. It has about 2.800 companies, against 4,000 at the time. More than three-quarters of the companies owned by the famous acronym TMT (Telecom, media, technology) totalling 90 by weight in the index. They weigh more than 55 these days. "By way of illustration, in the Nasdaq 100, the more restricted index, remain only 7 companies of the Internet." "Few companies have survived, and the Nasdaq is significantly diverse", resumed Stefan Slowinski.

However, the results of the Decade is negative. Many small businesses have become giant (read here). Apple is now the Mastodon of Nasdaq 100 (15.5 of the weighting of Nasdaq 100), while he had a decade earlier, minimal weight shows Exane BNP Paribas. Google, on the third rank of the weights of the index behind Microsoft, whose weight has varied little, was even not rated. Other groups little-known, like Research in Motion (RIM), have seen their prices explode.

In the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch of February survey, technology sector is the favorite of global managers. "Large technology firms have more of cash than those of other sectors and are more exporters." "They are well positioned to take advantage of the recovery," enthuses Scott Kessler, responsible for research on technology in Standard & Poor's. Would revenge be near