By Lynnley Browning, Globe Staff

BULL PROFILES 1. CMG Information Services, Inc. 2. BKC Semiconductors, Inc. 3. The Learning Co. 4. Infinium Software, Inc. 5. Keane Inc. BEAR PROFILES 1. DynaGen, Inc. 2. Palomar Medical Technologies Inc. 3. Designs Inc. 4. Converse Inc. 5. SystemSoft Corp.

assachusetts is no longer home to the giant technology companies that are helping to fuel the domestic stock market's bull run. But several of the state's small- to medium-sized software outfits are riding high on the broad sector's gains.

And many of them are profiting from impending doom.

Take Keane Inc., the Boston-based company that sets up complex computer systems for large corporations. With a red-hot business helping customers to cope with the year 2000 computer problem, Keane watched its stock price skyrocket 241 percent over a 12-month period through March 31 - the time frame the Globe uses to rank companies according to stock performance.

More than one company is needed to solve what is known as the Y2K matter, which threatens to wreak havoc on computers that can't recognize dates when the new millennium begins. Hyannis-based Infinium Software Inc. has seen sales of its own Y2K software solution soar, nearly quadrupling the company's stock price over the same 12 months.

Technological armageddons aren't the only bullish factors for software companies. The prospects for shopping via the Internet, or e-commerce, are also boosting stock in software companies. CMG Information Services Inc., an Andover-based outfit with 22 Internet-related units, saw its stock swell nearly 378 percent over theyear, making it the top Massachusetts-based gainer.

The company, which counts Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. among its investors, hopes to tap into what could be a $300 billion emerging digital economy by 2002.

Semiconductor companies were among the worst hit last year by turmoil in Asia, a major consumer of high-tech goods. But not BKC Semiconductors Inc., which has retargeted its production of expensive semiconductor diodes to the aerospace and marine industries. Stock in the Lawrence-based company has more than quadrupled over the 12 months. The Learning Co., a Cambridge-based educational software company, spent last year teaching itself about generating returns. Strapped with debt from a buying spree that severely depressed its stock price in 1996, it sold a 25 percent stake of itself to, among others, Boston buyout gurus Thomas H. Lee Co. and Bain Capital Inc.

Investors gave the deal an ''A,'' sending shares in The Learning Co. soaring 263 percent over 12 months through March.

After receiving a drubbing in 1997, tech stocks came back in 1998 to gain nearly 17 percent in the first quarter. But not all software companies are riding high in what is a brutally competitive industry.

Shares in SystemSoft Corp. of Natick, which licenses software technology, shed 63 percent of their value over the year. Turmoil in Asia torpedoed computer sales in that region, which in turn depressed demand for SystemSoft's products. Like everyone else these days, the company also blamed competition from Microsoft for its woes.

Other companies whose stock prices fell were in two other highly competitive industries - athletic shoes and biopharmaceuticals.

After an outstanding 1996, Converse Inc., the North Reading-based athletic shoe manufacturer, watched customers shun its basketball shoes last year in favor of other footwear styles. The company's stock, trampled by the fickle fashion tastes, declined 64 percent through March.

Designs Inc. of Needham lost as much as Converse over the period. Designs, a retailer that sells mostly Levi's jeans, wrung its hands in desperation as consumers snapped up less-expensive brands or labels perceived as hipper.

Palomar Medical Technologies Inc. had a tumultuous year as it coped with restructuring charges, fought over patent issues with a competitor, relocated to Lexington, and gained a new chief executive. Investors frowned upon the turmoil, stripping the company's stock of nearly three quarters of its value. Palomar now hopes to do for its future what some of its products, which include laser systems for zapping body hair, do for customers - make things smoother.

And Dynagen Inc., a Cambridge-based biotechnology company, saw its stock price disappear into thin air after its main product, a smoking-cessation aid, bombed in clinical trials last summer and its corporate makeover failed to spark interest.