Gaming market expands

The gaming market is also still expanding ferociously. The traditional market focused on 15-25 year-olds, but Nintendo has been able to grow its market with products such as Wii and DS, which interest children as young as four. In the US, the DS is also enjoying strong sales to seniors, sometimes as an overt effort to keep brain activity stimulated. However, Nintendo is primarily followed by Japanese analysts who - as a rule - are conservative and may be underestimating its earnings potential.The Wii and the DS top the sales charts. Software figures released by Media Create last week show that Nintendo's flagship Wii Sports has now cracked the two million landmark. The wide scale upgrading of PCs to Microsoft's Vista expected in 2008 should also provide a fillip for chipmakers such as Intel. Of the three investment trusts in this sector, Herald Investment Trust (HRI) gained 22% over one year to the end of July, while RCM Technology Trust (RTT) put on 14% and Polar Capital Technology (PCT) returned 7%