Internet Update:

Vive Le Quebec!

Dateline: 11/08/99

Canadian Internet Stock Average
Oct. 29	2652.85
Nov. 5	2684.92
Week's Change	+1.21%
YTD Change	+168.5 %

This week's strongest stock in our index was Informission, a Quebec based company specializing in web-based business solutions. It is, in fact, one of a number of solid Quebec based companies with an interest in the Internet. Another is Quebecor, a huge media conglomerate which just bought a major stake in Informission. Quebecor is not on my index yet, but will be added next week along with a few other net-oriented companies I've come across.

Movers & Shakers

21 of the 59 stocks on our Canadian Internet Stock Average fluctuated by more than 10% the past week. Of these, 13 were advancers and 8 were decliners. The markets are improving and it is reflected in the ratio of advancers to decliners on our list. To see the Movers & Shakers Chart as a pop-up chart, click the button. To see it as a separate page with the discussion on the same page, click here.

Topping our list this week is Informission Inc., a Montreal based web solutions provider for business, upon completion of a partial takeover by the giant Quebecor media conglomerate and Informisssion's takeover of Quebecor subsidiary Intellia. Quebecor owns the Sun newspaper chain among other things, and its subsidiary, Quebecor Printing, is the largest commercial printing company in the world. Quebecor's New Media division recently acquired 100% ownership of CANOE, Canada's largest web portal, by buying out BCE's remaining interest.

The partial takeover deal injected $40 million into Informission's coffers and will help Informission and Intellia to expand its presence in international markets, particularly the U.S. and Europe. On September 30th Informission reported a 61% increase in third quarter revenue for period ending August 31.

Second on our list is Versus Technologies, the operator of E-Trade Canada. But E-Trade is just part of its operations. It is also a developer of electronic trading technology. The stock surged from its IPO price of $11.50 in March to a high of $28, then crashed and burned all the way down to $7.35 on Oct. 27th. A short term bounce or start of a recovery? I could find no news that would explain the leap in price this week.

e-Dispatch continues to fly with its third consecutive week of double digit gains. I discussed this company's explosive growth in my Movers & Shakers Report of Oct. 25. It was $0.80 in early July.

Infrastructure powerhouses JDS Uniphase and Nortel Networks, which I profiled last week, are both into their second consecutive week of double digit gains.

And on the downside, MedEra Life Sciences is into its second consecutive week of double digit drops.

Our Weekly Updates

The Canadian Internet Stock Average has been updated with Friday's closing prices. Three stocks were dropped after trading below a dollar a share for three consecutive weeks. They are Actfit.com, Goldengoals.com and IGN Internet Global Network. You'll find them added to our Penny Stock List this week.

Canadian Internet Stock Average
Canadian Internet Penny Stock List
Yankee Stock List

Profiled this week is Quebec based Informission Inc..

Informission Inc.

Comments? Suggestions? Why not post them on our Bulletin Board or email me.

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Recent Articles

11/04/99 - Shopping Clubs Under Fire
An update on our report on our visit to UCC TotalHome Consumers Club in June. Readers have been telling me the company is facing several lawsuits including a class action suit by customers.

11/01//99 - Invest in Infrastructure
Nortel Networks and JDS Uniphase are two of the hot stocks in our weekly Movers & Shakers Report.

10/28/99 - Home-made Butter
Over-trading can be hazardous to your portfolio according to studies by two American professors of finance.

10/25/99 - Good News, Bad News
Good news and bad news can affect stock price quite dramatically as we discover while checking out our Internet Movers & Shakers.

10/21/99 - Best of the Net: smallcapcenter.com
Tools make the difference at this newly revamped relaunch of Stockgroup.com. Check it out!

Investing (Canada) Notes

Disclosure: The author owns shares in both Nortel Networks & JDS Uniphase.

Newsletter reviews: A planned series of articles is on Newsletters. I subscribe to three and get a few complementary ones as well. I've found these to be informative and useful reading, but there are literally hundreds of newsletters out there. Which ones should the interested investor subscribe to? Not all newsletters are created equal. So I plan to review a few, one at a time. Let me know if you have a favorite newsletter you would like me to review. Or better yet, if you are a subscriber to a newsletter and want to do a guest column reviewing it, drop me a line.

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