HEXUS.sharewatch: tech sector led by NVIDIA, Intel, Google and Yahoo! out-performs market

Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft

The two other companies on our list to show double-figure gains are Yahoo! and Google.

There's no obvious reason for Google's gain but, with Yahoo! looking for a new CEO, there's bound to be some hope that there is still a deal to be done with Microsoft once Jerry Yang isn't there to obstruct it.

It remains to be seen what effect such a deal will have on Microsoft's shares, but the software giant stood out as the only company on our list to suffer a fall in its share price last week.

Microsoft announced its quarterly dividends last week so it could be the case that investors were disappointed by the amount.

The FTSE 100 somehow managed a decent rise last week, but the odds are against a repeat performance as the impact of the weakening pound sinks in and the latest jobless figures are announced this week.

Company	Listing	Share price 25/11/08	Share price 1/12/08	Share price 8/12/08	Share price 15/12/08	7-day change	Market cap (bn)
AMD	AMD	1.86	2.36	2.13	2.28	7.0%	1.39
Apple	AAPL	92.95	92.67	94.00	98.27	4.5%	87.36
Avnet	AVT	13.86	14.24	15.01	16.20	7.9%	2.44
Dell	DELL	10.14	11.17	10.71	11.48	7.2%	22.32
Google	GOOG	257.44	292.96	283.99	315.76	11.2%	99.39
HP	HPQ	35.70	35.28	33.53	35.97	7.3%	88.09
IBM	IBM	79.89	81.60	80.59	82.20	2.0%	110.43
Ingram Micro	IM	10.10	10.77	11.21	11.81	5.4%	1.95
Intel	INTC	13.56	13.80	13.29	14.75	11.0%	82.04
Microsoft	MSFT	20.69	20.22	19.87	19.36	-2.6%	172.22
Nvidia	NVDA	6.80	7.47	7.36	8.60	16.8%	4.62
Tech Data	TECD	16.47	17.44	16.07	16.66	3.7%	0.83
Yahoo	YHOO	10.21	11.51	11.66	13.15	12.8%	18.22
Dow	.DJI	8443.39	8829.04	8635.42	8629.68	-0.1%	N/A
FTSE 100	.FTSE	4093.60	4226.22	4025.93	4280.35	6.3%	N/A
NASDAQ	.IXIC	1472.02	1535.57	1509.31	1540.72	2.1%	N/A