Merrill Lynch is recommending Baltimore Technologies as a long-term buy for investors. The stock, which was dropped from the FTSE 100 index this week, has the capacity to grow strongly in the years ahead and should yield solid returns for investors, according to the brokers.

As one of the leading providers of technology which enables companies securely to transact business and communicate over the Internet, Merril Lynch believes it has the capacity to perform strongly in the years ahead.

The company is a market leader in its field in Europe. Through its acquisition of Cybertrust in January, it now has a complete range of in-house and outsourced solutions and has also acquired a US sales force.