MORE than ten years after the technology boom of the late Nineties, and with many investors still harbouring painful memories of the resulting crash in the values of tech stocks, are we playing witness to the re-emergence of the new economy?

As the bubble burst in 2000, we saw prices plummet as companies failed to live up to their over inflated valuations. However, now we have had a considerable time to reflect on the aftermath of what became known as the dot com crash, many companies are looking stronger than ever.

Global heavyweights such as Apple Inc and Intel Corp have recently released results well ahead of market expectations and are sitting on huge cash piles, begging to be used for investment and acquisitions.

In the case of Apple, this cash pile is estimated to stand at more than $40bn, mainly due to the success of the iPhone and iPad devices.

Even though the benchmark technology index has outperformed the world equity index since 2002, due to events of the past, many investors continue to be reluctant to venture into the technology sector.

One of the main reasons for this reluctance, certainly in the UK, is a lack of income provided by many technology companies in terms of dividends.

UK investors have traditionally warmed to the prospect of a dividend payment so without this, the attractiveness of purchasing such a holding diminishes.

Nowadays, however, tech companies such as Apple have become more like retailers than purely technology companies.

Products such as the iPhone and iPad appeal directly to the consumer and hence, this adds further diversity and, to an extent, security to the revenue performance of the company. It is not just the US firms who are benefiting from consumer demand for the latest smartphone, laptop or tablet device. In the UK, our very own ARM Holdings and Imagination Technologies provide many of the microchips used in creating most gadgets, and both have very close links with the likes of Apple.

Investor confidence is key to the performance of company shares and investors certainly know how to hold a grudge.

With this in mind, the BP and British Airways boards need to ensure this isn’t the case as far as they’re concerned, otherwise they could be in for a sustained period of underperformance when compared against their peers, notwithstanding current events in the Gulf of Mexico, of course.

Having seen the FTSE 100 Index recover quite significantly over the past month, it has been pleasing to see many of the UK’s largest companies reporting strong sales and profits growth. Sky TV operator BSkyB, drug maker AstraZeneca and Cillit Bang producer Reckitt Benckiser announced profits exceeding market expectations and improved performance across the majority of their divisions, and have seen their share prices react positively to the news.

This goes to show that as much as investor confidence has a major part to play in the share price performance of a company, fundamentals such as sales and profit growth will be the underlying driving force behind how the company is ultimately perceived.

With UK businesses, collectively in rude financial health, there are many opportunities presented to long-term investors for significant growth in both capital and income over the coming years. In times of austerity, these opportunities could be too good to miss.