Telecom sell-off drives bourses sharply down

Heavy selling of technology stocks sent leading European markets steeply lower.

Paris saw its heaviest fall for four months. The CAC-40 index closed below the 6,200 mark, losing 255.9 to 6,196.05.

Telecoms stocks were particularly hard hit, with Equant falling another 16 per cent to €45 following Thursday's fall of 21 per cent. The communications network company, which this week reported increased first-quarter losses, has now lost 50 per cent in the last two weeks. France Telecom lost 8.7 per cent to €137.80, Alcatel 5.5 per cent to €264.70 and Bouygues almost 10 per cent to €570.

Frankfurt lost 192.55 at 6,989.03 on the Xetra DAX index after a 7.9 per cent slide at Deutsche Telekom.

Telekom fell €4.76 at €55.80 as valuations within the telecoms sector came in for ever closer scrutiny by investors. SAP came off €38.60 at €550 and Epcos shed €9.30 at €137.

Disappointing first-quarter results sent Dresdner Bank down €1.11 at €44.20 and depressed sentiment across the sector. Deutsche Bank lost €1.79 at €81.10.

Amsterdam fell 15.77 to 652.45 on the AEX index with telecoms leader KPN leading the way down with a drop of 12.8 per cent.

KPN fell €13.05 to €88.90 as the market continued to roll back technology related valuations. Philips came off €2.40 at €46.10. The two stocks' combined trading volume was 22.3 million shares.

Helsinki plunged 8 per cent as its top two shares Nokia and Sonera were hammered in the Europe-wide sell-off. The general index lost 1,352.47 to 15,866.35.

Nokia lost 8.5 per cent to €56.50 and Sonera 14.4 per cent to €44.51, the third heaviest faller in the Eurotop 300.

Brokers said Sonera's weakness was also due to investors cashing in on recent gains to participate in the forthcoming IPO of Swedish peer Telia.

Milan tumbled 4.1 per cent after the sharply lower start on Wall Street further soured an already gloomy mood. The Mibtel index finished 1,300 lower at 30,491.

Telecoms stocks led the way down. Europe-wide selling was exacerbated by concerns about possible changes to Telecom Italia's plan to merge its Internet business Tin.it with Seat.

Madrid fell more than 3 per cent with the telecoms sell-off and the expiry of the May futures contract pushing the Ibex 35 index down 344.7 to 10,544.9.