Growth in tech stocks expected to cool long term.

THE Nasdaq stock index has climbed about 50 percent in the past two years, still not even near to its highs during the Internet boom, but enough to instill a dose of optimism.

Lately though experts are warning that the comeback, rather than a beginning, could be reaching its peak.

"The index as a whole may be in for tough times," said Scott Merritt CFA, an equity strategist with JP Morgan Funds, who spoke recently at the Santa Clarita Valley Real Estate and Economic Outlook conference sponsored by First American Title Co. "If companies in Nasdaq grow their earnings at 10 percent, it's hard to see Nasdaq going up (a lot) in the next five to 10 years."

Many of the technology companies that make up the majority of listings on Nasdaq are maturing, and, as their prospects for profit growth slow, so too will their value on the market, these experts say.

Of course, there are pockets of technology that are not likely to be part of the projected slowdown. The medical and biotech sectors, including companies like Amgen, companies offering services for electronic payment, those who sell business applications and even some Internet stocks, although not all of them.

But by and large, say analysts, there is a slow-down ahead in stock values for the very companies that fueled the market over the past 20 years.

"All markets mature eventually," said Robert V. Green, investment strategist for Briefing.com. "You have a huge growth era, which, for tech stocks has really lasted since the PC was first invented. But I think what you're seeing now is that the large corporations that have driven the revenue of most technology companies are maturing."

What fueled the Nasdaq for so many years was the move by corporations to computerize, first with PCs and later with networking, and the whole home computer revolution.