Aussie Tech Stocks Survive Early Slaughter Fears

SYDNEY:  Australian technology stocks by and large survived what had been expected to be a day of slaughter on the stockmarket yesterday.

Sydney-based but US-listed Atlassian did cop a pounding, with its shares finishing the day down US$11.36 on the Nasdaq exchange. Most of the big US-based tech stocks also suffered, with Apple down US$22.86, IBM shedding $9.92, Microsoft down $10.95 and Amazon shedding no less than $100, finishing the day at $1800.61.

However. it was a different story on the ASX. The S&P/ASX200 index initially plunged 3.8 percent, but recovered as the day wore on, closed up 179 points, or 3.11 percent, at 5939.6.

Most of the major technology stocks finished up on the day, with AfterPay jumping $1.95 to finish at $29.58, datacentre operator NextDC up 37c at $8.4, Rene Sugo’s MNF (originally MyNetFone) up five cents at $3.38 and Richard White’s WiseTech logistics outfit up 77c at $14.25.