It was the year of internet and technology frenzy, with companies such as ARM and Sage storming almost every available barricade. Not even the takeover fever which continued to grip the banking sector could rival the gravity-defying performance of shares in telecoms and new technology in 1999.
Investor imagination was ignited by the world's largest hostile bid, staged for Germany's Mannesmann by Vodafone AirTouch, the huge British group which is also working with compatriot BT to divvy up the spoils in Spain by seizing control of Airtel, that country's second-largest mobile phone group.
A lack of exposure to these soaraway sectors means that the Guardian's portfolio of share tips was sadly uninspiring in 1999, after an impressive 48% return the year before.
The eventual arrival of a new Canadian chief executive for Barclays Bank, after Martin Taylor had unexpectedly quit last winter, gave some vigour by helping to lift the banking group's shares from Ë12.96 to Ë17.82. That 37.5% gain over the year combined with a 31.5% rise in the price of the software and consultancy group Admiral to give zest to our share tips for the year.
The takeover of another of the Guardian's picks of 1999, Select Appointments, which was acquired by Holland's Vedior in a Ë1.1bn deal in September, was a bonus to the portfolio, as well as to Martin Pestalozzi, the Swiss staffing entrepreneur who had rescued the company from the brink of insolvency in the early 1990s. Elsewhere, however, the investment climate was less kind to shares - particularly those which are among the mainstays of modern life: water, cigarettes and booze. Imperial Tobacco fell by 134p to 510p after suffering from the fall-out from the fear of renewed litigations, problems in developing markets and a failure to cement the promised growth through acquisition. Most of all, however, the company suffered because it is not a high technology operator.
The Hilton Group, formerly Ladbroke, did not realise the bounce back which we had anticipated following the sale of the Coral betting chain, although it was not alone as a member of the distinctly unloved leisure sector. The company ended the year at 198p, down from 241.5p.
Our final tip - Marks & Spencer - suffered the most last year. Shares fell from 600p to 295p, but we were not alone in being unable to imagine that this once prestige high street retailer could become quite so cheap without someone launching a takeover bid.
