Nets Hit Hard, but Some Managers Starting to Increase Exposure

A week that most market participants would just as soon forget was finally completed. But the week ended much the way it began, and similar to what went on during the middle few days.

The Nasdaq continued to crumble like a stale cookie, closing down 355.72, or 9.67%, at 3321.06. TheStreet.com Internet Sector index closed down 99.15, or 12.20%, at 713.87. TheStreet.com New Tech 30 finished down 74.25, or 14.75%, at 428.87.

Net/Tech Indices INDEX CHANGE % VALUE TSC Internet 99.15 -12.2% 713.87 TSC E-Commerce 6.96 -11.4% 54.08 TSC E-Finance 10 1/32 -16.2% 51 29/32 Nasdaq 355.72 -9.7% 3320.04

There is little indication that the selling will not persist when traders return to work on Monday. Technical analysts would like to see a big down day like the one we had Friday end on a strong note, but that was not the case. Robert Dickey, director of market research with Dain Rauscher Wessels, who has been dead-on about the market's collapse, was expecting a drop to the 3000 or 2900 level even when the Nasdaq was at 3838. And when the Dot was trading at the 868.13 level, he forecast a decline to 700, about where it went today.

Barry Hyman, senior market analyst with Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum, said he couldn't predict where the Nasdaq would bottom out, but he did say that he was starting to increase his exposure in technology. He said there was enough doom and gloom in the market to suggest things could bounce back, and anecdotal stories such as talk of hedge funds in trouble could indicate a bottom was closer than it appeared.

"All the stories that your hear that create fear and concern and nervousness and losses, at the same time creates a bottom," he said. "These are the ingredients of a potential market turn. No one should be guessing at what point it's going to bottom, but at this point we're buying stock."

Hyman said his firm's growth fund came into March underweighted in tech at around 11%, but has increased the weighting to 19%. Among the stocks they bought recently were Nortel Networks (NT Quote) and PeopleSoft (PSFT Quote), and they were beginning to buy Microsoft (MSFT Quote).

"Things can still blow up, but our philosophy is having been underweighted and having been through this before and seeing 1987 and 1973 to 1975, how opportunities are created and that's what you see here," he said. "We see the good in all of this. The good here is this will give us a more discerning, more discrimination, earnings-based technology model, which was not the case for the last four or five months."

Hyman said he did not think that the business-to-business model was over. He said for individual clients he was buying Merrill Lynch's B2b HOLDRs (BHH Quote), and also some individual stocks that have been dragged down with the rest of tech like America Online (AOL Quote) and Cisco (CSCO Quote). AOL finished down 4 3/8, or 7.38%, at 54 7/8. Cisco closed down 4 1/8, or 6.75%, at 57.

Before the close, Hyman said if the market had a huge drop in the last hour, he would be willing to get more aggressive in tech and tilt more toward a 25% to 30% rating.

Today's carnage was widespread through the sector. CMGI (CMGI Quote) closed down 14 3/16, or 21.4%, at 52 1/16. priceline (PCLN Quote) closed down 4 3/16, or 6.7%, at 57 15/16. Redback Networks (RBAK Quote) closed down 25 15/16, or 31.58%, at 56 3/16. BroadVision (BVSN Quote) fell 10 3/8, or 25.86%, at 29 3/4. And Liberate Technologies (LBRT Quote)dropped 8 7/8, or 22.76%, at 30 1/8.