Europe's markets once again were pulled lower by their technology and telecom stocks, with the FTSE Eurotop index falling 1 per cent. However, mild rises in defensive sectors and the mid-week tech-stock rally left the loss for the week at just 0.5 per cent.
The telecom sector took further punishment, with sentiment hit by WorldCom which had its debt cut by Moody's to junk status. The big names Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom both fell once again to their lowest levels. Deutsche Telekom was also hit by worries about an EU investigation into its pricing. Deutsche Telekom lost 6.8 per cent to €12.39 and France Telecom lost 9.7 per cent to €20.55.
Technology stocks were under pressure from IBM's statement that it was still cutting costs, inflating worries that tech spending would remain sluggish for some time. Infineon was down another 6.1 per cent to €17.89 on top of the previous day's sharp loss, wiping out its midweek rally.
Nokia and Ericsson made up for lost time, having taken Thursday off for Ascension Day. Nokia fell 4.4 per cent to €17.04 and Ericsson fell 6.4 per cent to 23.40 Swedish krona.
A profits warning from the UK computer services group Logica, a specialist in mobile phone text messaging technology, hit its European peers Cap Gemini and Atos Origin. Cap Gemini fell 6.4 per cent to €59 and Atos fell 8.6 per cent to €67.05.
While the TMTs remained a turn-off for investors, they turned to a variety of sectors with companies showing strong earnings. Beiersdorf, maker of Nivea and other consumer products, jumped 2.4 per cent to €127 ahead of what is expected to be a glowing first-quarter earnings report on Tuesday. Sales figures, released last month, rose 3.6 per cent to €1.2 billion, helped by the strength of its Nivea products which have returned double-digit sales growth for the last six years.
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