European shares closed out a dreadful week with more losses yesterday as bruised investors reeled from bad news in the high-tech sector, where chip-maker Intel warned second-quarter sales would fall below forecasts.
Around €950 million was wiped off the value of the Irish stock market, with the ISEQ falling by 73 points, or 1.4 per cent, hit by a sharp drop in Elan shares as the stock was knocked by renewed worries about its finances.
In London, the FTSE 100 index closed down 0.75 per cent at 54,920.4 points, ending a week that saw it go below 5,000 points for the first time in eight months.
In late Frankfurt trade, the DAX was off by 1.54 per cent at 4,585.81 points, close to a seven-month low, and across the 12-nation euro zone the EuroStoxx 50 had lost 2.16 per cent to 3,206.82 points.
The CAC 40 fell by 1.98 per cent to 4,020.27 points in Paris, posting its lowest close in more than eight months.
Much of the losses could be traced to a high-tech slump made worse by the Intel announcement.
On top of that, geopolitical tensions and periodically thin trading because of World Cup football matches left investors with few reasons to buy.
Trading in London did, however, pick up a bit after England defeated Argentina 1-0 in their match in Japan.
However, British mobile telephone operator Vodafone, in which many Irish small investors hold shares following Vodafone's acquisition of Eircell, was off by 1.55 per cent at 95 pence sterling, its lowest level since early 1998 and a far cry from the high point of 399 reached in March 2000.
Rival mm02 fell by 3.82 per cent to 37.75 pence. BT Group lost 1.22 per cent at 263.75 pence.
Oil shares also lost ground as crude prices continued to fall, with BP off by 1.06 per cent at 558 pence, and Shell losing 1.34 per cent to 514 pence.
Pharmaceutical issues were mixed. GlaxoSmithKline ended the day with a gain of 2.8 per cent at 1,358 pence, while AstraZeneca lost 1.68 per cent to 2,810 pence.
In Frankfurt, the Intel announcement slammed rival Infineon, which plunged by 4.45 per cent to €16.55 in late trades.
Parent company Siemens lost 3.25 per cent to €62.29, and professional software giant SAP was off by 1.90 per cent at €108.74.
Deutsche Telekom continued to test new lows, hitting €10.06 before bouncing back a bit to €10.35, a loss of 2.73 per cent.
"Deutsche Telekom has practically become a toy for speculative funds," a dealer said.
