The Night Watch: Tech Shares Drift Lower in Light Trading

It was a typically sleepy Friday on Instinet after the bell, with a total of about 3.5 million shares changing hands in the first 30 minutes of the extended session. Nearly 1.5 million of those issues were among the top 20 volume movers.

In the absence of major corporate news, technology stocks controlled the direction of after-hours trading. Cisco(CSCO Quote) was the leading volume mover and was off 0.1%, to $16.93 on Instinet, while Intel(INTC Quote) was third on the list and fell 1.5%, to $24.65.

Oracle(ORCL Quote) was off 0.3%, Sun Microsystems(SUNW Quote) slipped 0.4%, JDS Uniphase(JDSU Quote) rose 0.1%, while Dell(DELL Quote) dropped 0.8%.

Juniper Networks(JNPR Quote), which gained 26.6% during the regular session, shed 0.3%, to $21 after hours. On Thursday the company posted quarterly earnings that beat Wall Street's expectations.

Hyseq(HYSQ Quote), a biopharmaceutical products research and development company, was the second most active stock and was up 0.4%, to $9.15.

Viisage Technology(VISG Quote) was off 2.3%, to $13.55 after rocketing higher in the regular session. Investors pushed the maker of facial recognition technology up 24.8% in Nasdaq trading on Friday.

Allegiance Telecom(ALGX Quote) was off 1.6%, to $6.30. Shares were up 5.6% in the regular session. Earlier on Friday, UBS Warburg downgraded the stock from buy to hold.

10 most active stocks on Island ECN (4:45 p.m. EDT)
Company	Price	Change	Session Volume
Nasdaq 100 Tracking Stock (QQQ Quote)	34.46	-0.09	286,146
Cepheid (CPHD Quote)	7.87	+0.09	169,507
Juniper Networks (JNPR Quote)	21.01	N/A	69,822
S&P Spyders (SPY Quote)	109.45	-0.05	68,140
JDS Uniphase (JDSU Quote)	9.06	+0.02	62,809
Intel (INTC Quote)	24.59	-0.41	45,852
Ciena (CIEN Quote)	16.89	-0.24	43,982
Sun Microsystems (SUNW Quote)	9.98	N/A	39,585
QLogic (QLGC Quote)	36.97	-0.09	32,494
Brocade (BRCD Quote)	25.26	N/A	32,190

Island ECN offers trading, mainly in Nasdaq-listed stocks, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST.

Confused? TheStreet.com explains how the rules change when the sun goes down in Investing Basics: Night Owl, a section devoted to after-hours trading.