【英语财经】投资者担忧科技行业前景 Technology investors wary as market turmoil batters sector’s biggest names

Investors are wary of the technology sector’s prospects this week after one of the market’s remaining bulwarks fell

victim to the widespread equities rout amid growing fears over slowing global growth and the Chinese economy.

Friday’s tumble deepened a slide that left some of the best-known tech names nursing even bigger losses than the rest of the market, with Apple, Microsoft and Intel each falling nearly 9 per cent during the week.

The setback has also exposed a

widening gulf between the euphoric

valuations for private tech companies and the more sombre public stock

market, increasing the chances of a reversal for a group of high-flying

private companies that have come to embody the sector’s hopes for future growth, according to some tech investors.

Although public tech companies were not trading at high valuations by historic standards, the sector has been caught in a wider collapse that was

“a carte blanche bloodbath for everyone”, said Kevin Walkush, a portfolio manager at Jensen Investment Management.

Many US tech companies generate more than half their sales overseas, exposing them to a rising US dollar as other currencies slide, said Ryan Jacob at Jacob Asset Management.

The latest tumble left Apple’s shares more than 20 per cent below their level a month ago, wiping $150bn from its value and leaving the shares at only11 times expected earnings this year.

“[Tech] valuations were looking pretty good and now they’re looking really good — unless we’re headed

into a global recession,” said Mr Jacob.

The deepest damage to tech from the market reversal is likely to be felt by companies valued on their growth prospects, according to investors. Chinese internet groups have fallen hard, with shares in ecommerce company Alibaba losing 9 per cent last week to end at $68.18, barely above the company’s $68 listing price of 11 months ago and 43 per cent below the peak.

投资者对本周科技行业前景感到担忧，此前股市尚存的中坚板块之一成为大规模股票抛售的受害者。目前人们对于全球增长放缓和中国经济日益感到担忧。

上周五的暴跌加剧了跌势，一些最知名的科技巨擘的股价跌幅甚至超过其他股票，苹果(Apple)、微软(Microsoft)和英特尔(Intel)上周均下跌近9%。

一些科技股投资者表示，此轮跌势也反映出，私有科技企业估值高企与较为黯淡的公开股市之间的差距日益扩大，加大了一些目前估值极高的私有企业表现逆转的几率，这些企业已成为科技行业未来增长期望的象征。

Jensen Investment Management投资组合经理凯文?沃库什(Kevin Walkush)表示，尽管根据历史标准衡量，公开上市的科技企业的估值并不高，但该行业已被卷入大盘的下挫，这“对所有股票都是一场血洗”。

Jacob Asset Management的莱恩?雅各布(Ryan Jacob)表示，很多美国科技企业超过一半的销售额来自海外，在其他货币汇率下跌之际，它们很容易受到美元升值的影响。

最新一轮股市下跌导致苹果股价较一个月前水平下跌逾20%，市值蒸发1500亿美元，按今年预期盈利计算市盈率仅为11倍。

雅各布表示：“（科技企业）估值之前看上去不错，现在看上去好极了——除非我们滑入全球经济衰退。”

投资者表示，那些依靠增长前景获得较高估值的公司，可能会遭遇股市逆转对科技行业的最严重影响。中国互联网公司股价跌势惨重，电商企业阿里巴巴(Alibaba)股价上周下跌9%，收于68.18美元，略高于11个月前该公司68美元的发行价，较峰值水平下跌43%。

译者/梁艳裳