Markets put down positive week

Bullish sentiment from the corporate and economic sectors saw the markets close another consecutive week in positive territory.

Talk of recovery abounded, and investors and analysts’ continued to watch the markets closely to avoid "missing it" (the recovery) when it does occur. However, the gains made by Thursday’s close were somewhat moderate compared to the weekly gains made in recent weeks.

The DJIA performed best of all the major markets, closing the week (Friday to Thursday) at 9196.55, 1.48 percentage points higher than last week. The NASDAQ and FTSE 100 closed at 1653.62 and 4161.3 respectively, up by less than one percent since last Friday.

On the corporate front, tech giant IBM (NYSE: IBM) saw its shares end higher following the announcement that it was seeing signs of recovery in the market. Shares in software giant Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) were also on the upside after the company saw its quarterly earnings increase and despite news of its hostile takeover bid on rival PeopleSoft (NASDAQ: PSFT).

Mobile equipment maker Nokia (NYSE: NOK) also put a smile on investor faces following news that it was on target to meet its forecasted earnings. Not so lucky however was rival, Motorola (NYSE: MOT).

Its shares struggled after it warned that 2003 earnings would be affected by the SARS outbreak. Adobe Systems (NASDAQ: ADBE) was also on the downside after it issued a bleak outlook despite increased profits for last quarter. On the economic front, retail data and the ‘beige book’ joined recent economic data released to suggest that the US economy was indeed on the path to recovery.

In London, the biggest news during the week was that the UK was not to join the EMU in the immediate future. The London markets took most of their cues though from the positive economic news in the US.

In the corporate sector, shares in media giants Granada (GAA.L) and Carlton (CCM.L) took a hit on the announcement that the UK Competition Commission may delay its recommendation on the merger between the two television companies by up to three months.

Irish company, ParthusCeva (NASDAQ: PCVA) announced that it was to appoint semi conductor industry veteran, Chet Silvestri as CEO. The company’s shares rose by over 7 percent to USD 7.1 on the back of the news.

Baltimore Technologies (BLM.L) and Trintech (NASDAQ: TTPA) announced a new contract and a new reseller deal respectively. Baltimore shares rose during the week by 6.5 percent to 33p. Trintech shares were up by 4 percent to USD2.34.