Brown's warning on dot.com shares By George Jones, Political Editor

INVESTORS should be cautious about joining the rush to invest in internet shares, Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, said yesterday.

Mr Brown, who issued his warning over the boom in so-called dotcom shares after some leading, better-established companies were knocked out of the FTSE-100 Index by their success, said smaller investors should be particularly careful.

But the Treasury stressed that his comments should not be seen as a signal that the Government was alarmed by the boom. A Treasury source said: "It is not a question of alarm bells ringing. It was general advice that people who invest in these companies should make sure they know what they are doing."

Mr Brown, interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, initally appeared reluctant to comment on the surge in internet companies - some of which have yet to make a profit. He said: "I said we had got to be cautious in most instances. And in this instance obviously people will want to look at the performance of each of these individual companies."

The Treasury said it was continuing to monitor developments on the Stock Exchange and it was pleased that Howard Davies, the chairman of the City watchdog the Financial Services Authority, had also urged investor caution. Mr Davies said: "When a company is valued more on hope than on expectation, then you can expect it to be a volatile stock."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000122257519214&rtmo=kL3Nko3p&atmo=FFFFFFtX&pg=/et/00/3/10/net10.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), March 10, 2000

Answers

Hey carl-

11 in a row-is that a new record?? I seem to remember 10 being the record!

Good to see you here, posting all the news that's "fit to print"!

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), March 10, 2000.

Ditto Carl, keep up the great info....good to c ya.

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), March 10, 2000.