Stockwatch Daily: Oracle saves the day

NEWS European markets lifted this morning after good news from software giant Oracle changed investor sentiment for technology firms. The FTSE100 was up 33 points or 0.6 per cent and the TechMark index also gained slightly. European exchanges performed even more strongly, with the German DAX up 1.3 per cent and the Neuer Markt up 2.5 per cent. Rises in the UK were led by telcos with Vodafone and BT gaining 1.2 and one per cent respectively. Software and systems integrators also fared well with strong rises for Logica, Sage and Dimension Data. Software stocks were boosted by better than expected results for database vendor Oracle, which still showed profit falling 83 per cent. However, this was enough to boost European companies, and German ERP vendor SAP gained 5.6 per cent. The Oracle results rescued markets after a bad day in the US for technology companies. The Nasdaq fell just a shade off two per cent after telco and ISP Level 3 announced a profit warning and job cuts. All the major tech companies fell, with Cisco, Sun and Microsoft all down. Handheld device manufacturer Palm fell 15 per cent on speculation it is losing the device war with Compaq.