MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs coast into long weekend

Techs got a boost going into the long weekend as money managers snapped them up for portfolios on the last day of the second quarter. The Nasdaq rose 52.38 to 3,929.61 and the Dow Jones industrial average lost 27.94 to 10,370.10.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index rose 6 to 487.76.

A strong batch of IPOs was also ready to debut. StorageNetworks (Nasdaq: STOR) rose 64 to 97 after it priced 9 million common shares at $27 a piece. Mobility Electronics (Nasdaq: MOBE) and EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering (Nasdaq: EXFO) also priced.

Three overseas offerings priced for debut Friday: Mobile TeleSystems (NYSE: MBT), Netease.com (Nasdaq: NTES) and Precise Software (Nasdaq: PRES).

There was lots of action on the telecommunications front; AT&T (NYSE: T) fell 3/16 to 32 1/16 after reports it may issue tracking stocks for its core consumer long-distance phone and cable TV businesses. SBC Communications (NYSE: SBC) rose1/16 to 45 5/8 after it announced the FCC will allow it to sell service in its home state, Texas.

UTStarcom (Nasdaq: UTSI), up 6 3/4 to 29 7/8, said Friday that the Chinese government has finished reviewing its products and will begin to implement them.

Verio (Nasdaq: VRIO) was down 4 13/16 to 54 11/16 after NTT Communications, a unit of Japan's NTT said on Friday it has not decided whether to take up its right to extend the period of its takeover bid for the company.

Compaq Computer (NYSE: CPQ) fell 5/16 to 25 3/8 issuing a statement defending itself against a downgrade Thursday. Dell (NYSE: DELL) was up 15/16 to 49 5/16, Gateway (NYSE: GTW) was up 2 3/4 to 58 7/16.

Yahoo!(Nasdaq: YHOO) was up 1 1/16 to 120 3/8, Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) lost 9/16 to 36 9/16 and AOL (NYSE: AOL) lost 1/16 to 51 11/16.

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) lost 1 to 130 3/4 and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was up 3/4 to 77 15/16.

Among other leading tech issues: Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) rose 15/16 to 62 1/8, Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) was up 1 7/8 to 89 11/16 and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) rose 2 1/8 to 83.