The Triple-I Index fell by 1.8 points in early morning trade taking it down to a value of 636.8 despite a rise in markets further afield.
The most notable player of all was MultiEmedia (MUL) which had taken the third biggest rise on the ASX by midday. MultiEmedia was leaps and bounds ahead of other Triple-I entrants and sitting comfortably at a 17 percent increase of 21 cents. It fell back in afternoon trade to 19 cents.
ERG (ERG) hit a morning low of AU$9.13 but investors rallied support around the smart card company in afternoon trade following the announcement that it has signed a multi-million dollar contract with Telstra Saturn to build an integrated telecommunications network in New Zealand. ERG had recovered its morning loss and more in afternoon trade and market value was worth AU$9.40.
Trading was heavy in Telstra (TLS) shares with over 19 million changing hands by midday. Telstra shares were marked down 1 percent to AU$6.70 and its second tranche instalment receipts -- of which over 18 million had changed hands -- were trading down 1.9 percent at AU$3.71.
Amongst other telcos, AAPT (AAP) and Cable & Wireless Optus (CWO) were both down 2 percent to trade at AU$5.85 and AU$4.38 respectively, and junior contender on the telco circuit Davnet was down 2.6 percent to AU$1.14.
Netcomm also picked itself up from a morning slide -- which took its share price to a low of 22 cents. It surged 31 percent in afternoon trade to a value of 29 cents.
B Digital -- which listed on the ASX on Tuesday at a 10-cent discount to its AU$1 issue price -- announced that it has contracted its 100,000th mobile phone subscriber. "We commenced trading in February 1999 and only reached nationwide marketing coverage in September. In this short time we've managed to achieve rapid growth in our subscriber base without sacrificing credit quality or commercial viability," Executive Director George Gelavis said in a statement to the ASX. The good news did little to inspire investor confidence and the mobile phone reseller saw a fall of 8.1 percent in its market value that was trading at 80 cents at day's end.
At the end of the day's trade, the Triple-I Index was down 5.6 points and valued at 633.
