By Matt Nauman, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.
Aug. 9--The SV150, the Mercury News' compilation of the financial strength of Silicon Valley's largest public companies, posted its best percentage gain this week since January 2003.
The aggregate market cap of the 150 companies rose 8.7 percent to $1.32 trillion.
"It's a combination of tech in the ascendancy right now and the general stock market increase," said Stephen Levy, director and senior economist at the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto. "I don't think it's fair to just say it's about us."
Share prices rose for 124 of the 150 companies. One stayed the same, while 25 lost momentum. The biggest gainers were Sanmina-SCI (+23.7 percent), Shutterfly (+22.2 percent) and Advanced Analogic Technologies (+20 percent). All 10 of the largest Silicon Valley companies saw rising stock prices, led by Sanmina-SCI, Cisco Systems (+10.3 percent) and Sun Microsystems (+10 percent).
The general stock market rose this week because of the "fairly dramatic drop" in oil prices, Levy said. Local stocks benefited from that, he said, and news that 40 percent of alternative-energy venture funding went to Silicon Valley companies.
None of this surprises Kevin Landis, chief investment officer of Firsthand Capital Management, a San Jose mutual-fund company.
"Stocks have been going down because people are worried at the macro level. They're worried about the economy. They're worried about the soundness of the financial
system," he said.
"None of that is related to tech. So, when people crawl out from under their desks, start looking for good news and put on their rose-colored glasses again, the first place they're going to look is tech," Landis said.
Contact Matt Nauman at mnauman@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5701.
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Story Source: San Jose Mercury News
