25 October 1999

The Close FTSE techMARK unit trust will be the only technology fund available for Pep transfers.

The tracker fund will solely invest UK stocks. Other technology funds have exposure to US and Far East equities which excludes them from being held within a Pep.

The fund will start investing in stocks on 3 November when the new FTSE techMARK 100 Index is launched. The new benchmark will focus on the small and medium- sized technology companies. As such, the index will cover the new and fast growing companies in the sector but will exclude the biggest and more established stocks.

Stocks in the index will have a market capitalisations of between 100m to 4bn. Some companies in the index include Sema, Sage, Logica, MISYS and CMG. The largest sector within the index is computer services/ Internet with weighting of 35%. It is followed by computer software and biotechnology companies with weightings of 20% and 16% respectively. Other sectors include electronic equipment, telecommunications and computer hardware.

Investors will benefit from a 1.5% discount on the initial management fee of 4.75% until 1 December. The annual management fee on the Isable unit trust is 1.15%