Tech Stocks Decline Again, but Oracle Bucks Trend

Stocks of high-technology companies fell for a second straight week, led by Altera and Intuit.

The Bloomberg Silicon Valley Index dropped 3.46 points, or 2.19%, for the week to close at 154.30.

Still, the index, a price-weighted list of 53 high-technology companies, has still risen 13% since reaching a 13-month low of 136.92 on July 23.

Altera posted the biggest decline, dropping 4 1/2 during the week to close at 39 1/2. Most of that loss came Thursday, when the chip maker fell 3 3/8 to 39 5/8.

Altera was among several specialty chip and computer networking companies punished by a collapse in Zilog shares, which plunged 34% to a four-year low Thursday.

Late Wednesday, Zilog said its third-quarter earnings will lag expectations because of sluggish sales of its specialized computer chips, including highly profitable modem chips.

Related stocks that fell included chip maker Xilinx, which dropped 3 during the week to end at 32. Adaptec, which makes chips and other networking products, fell 3/4 to 47 1/8.

Intuit fell 4 1/4 during the week to 32 1/4, a 14-month low. Shares of Intuit, which publishes the personal finance software programs Quicken and TurboTax, dropped 12% this week and have fallen more than 50% this year.

Morgan Stanley & Co. analyst Mary Meeker cut her estimate for Intuit’s fiscal 1997 earnings Thursday to 79 cents a share from $1.05, citing higher investment costs for its online and Internet services.

Among stocks that rose during the week, Oracle posted the biggest gain, climbing 2 1/4 to 37 1/2.

The provider of corporate database software was reinstated Thursday as a “buy” by analyst Andrew Roskill at Smith Barney.

Roskill also initiated coverage of Informix, another database software company, with a “buy” rating.

Informix rose 1 7/8 during the week to end at 24 3/8.

In Friday’s trading, the Silicon Valley index snapped a five-day decline, rising 1.79 points. IBM posted the biggest gain, climbing 2 1/8 to 115 1/4, a four-month high.

The world’s No. 1 computer maker is expected to announce plans to provide a home-banking service over its global network and eventually the Internet.

Netscape Communications rose 2 1/8 to 37 1/8. Shares of the Internet software designer closed at a 10-month low of 35 on Thursday.

Disk drive maker Quantum rose 1 13/16 to 16, matching a 12-week high, and Cisco Systems rose 1 1/2 to 53 3/8.

Medical supplies maker Coherent fell the most in Friday’s trading, dropping 1 1/2 to 37, a seven-month low. Its shares have lost 30% of their value in the last four months.