The market has quietened down since the heady period up to March, when companies associated with technology, the media or telecoms (TMT) saw their shares rise to unexpected values while those of other companies fell.

Even growing Telecom companies such as BT, Vodafone, Colt and Filtronic have experienced sharp falls in prices recently. The balance between greed and fear in the Stock Market can be a fine one, just as reality sometimes has to get in the way of fashion.

Not surprisingly the shares of some well-known local companies such as Provident Financial, BPT and Wm Morrison have all recovered from depressed levels as the value of their respective businesses is appreciated by long-term investors.

Pace Micro's shares jumped on news of a "memorandum of understanding" with Microsoft to develop applications for digital TV. Pace is a world leader in the development of TV set-top boxes, and Microsoft will adopt this technology as a core reference platform for digital TV applications such as entertainment, Internet services and online shopping.

For Pace the deal brings further recognition of its position in the set-top box market, and the company expects that it will lead to the more rapid introduction of new products and services for the home "network" via digital TV.

Ellis & Everard has announced a contract with Ironside Technologies Ltd, a leading business to business (B2B) software company, to develop its e-commerce systems. As a result the company plans to reduce its UK distribution depots from 21 to 12, including one new depot in the South West to replace three.

The sales force will have mobile IT capability and close links with customers IT systems. Plans to extend the same principles to its US operations are ahead of those in the UK, and Europe will follow in due course to provide e-commerce capability across the group.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.