Nokia's news unleashes tide of negativity

Nokia crashed to the bottom of the day's performance charts yesterday on slower-than-expected sales figures and threw a bucket of cold water over telecoms stocks in general in the process.

A certain amount of nervousness had been building in the mobile handset market leading up to the trading updates and yesterday, on the eve of fourth quarter results from US giant Motorola, these spilled out.

At 128 million, Nokia's handset sales for 2000 were about 5 per cent below the market consensus and investors hit the sell button from the opening bell. The stock plunged to #36.51 before finally pulling out of what came perilously close to free-fall to finish off 8.7 per cent at #41.

Trading was some of the heaviest on record with 72 million shares changing hands in Helsinki. In Sweden, Ericsson B shares tumbled 4.4 per cent to SKr100, while in the US Motorola was off 3 per cent in early trading.

Among the big operators France Telecom came off 4.9 per cent at #86.30, while Deutsche Telekom shed 1.9 per cent at #33.19. Telefonica fell 1.1 per cent at #18.50.

In the technology sector, DAX heavyweight SAP soared 9.1 per cent to #156.02, extending its two-day gain to 24.7 per cent, as Monday's better-than-expected results were capped by an upgrade from Credit Suisse First Boston.

The group's fourth quarter results, showing revenues rose 27 per cent to 2.1 billion, were sufficient to maintain renewed interest in the stock from investors who have been taking the view over the past week that sharp losses in the final quarter of last year were overdone.

CSFB analysts said the fourth quarter figures provided the final evidence they needed to upgrade the stock to a buy, with a price target of 200.

The shares have rallied sharply since they fell to a 15-month low of #118.70 on January 3rd.

eQ Online bucked a negative trend in Helsinki, shooting up 20 per cent at one stage on news of a deal with Goldman Sachs to offer investors access to equity markets in the US and Europe. The shares closed 4.5 per cent higher at #1.17.