Vodafone suffers in renewed downside pressure on TMTs

A fresh dose of downside pressure on many of the TMT stocks, and especially Vodafone, plus a downturn in the oil majors, BP and Shell, put paid to any chances of a sustained rally in the FTSE 100 index yesterday.

The oils were damaged by poorly-received results from Exxon Mobil, while sentiment in Vodafone, already bruised recently by worries about falling sales, and bad results from Nokia, Ericsson and others in recent sessions, was affected by disappointing numbers from Verizon, the US local telecommunications group.

Falls in those three UK stocks accounted for the closing 30.5 decline in the FTSE 100, which fell below the 5,200 level for the first time since April 12th and ended the session at 5,191.5.

However, the index remains firmly in the middle of the 5,000-5,370 range in which it has been confined since October 5th.

Although the downside pressures across the broad market were never more than light, it was the relentless selling of the heavily-weighted Vodafone that continued to gnaw away at investors' confidence.

Vodafone shares were the worst individual performer in the top 100 index and the market's heaviest traded stock by a wide margin, accounting for 22 per cent of market volume.

The company is scheduled to issue a trading update tomorrow and that is being viewed as crucial to the overall market's well-being in the short term.

Financial Spreads, the London-based spread betting group, chopped its spread on the number of days before Vodafone shares drop below 100p to 25-30 days, from its opening quotation yesterday of 50-55. "It could happen later this week - we're banking on it taking a bit longer," said Mr Freddie Tulloch at Financial Spreads.

The spread betting firm initiated its spread on Wednesday, April 10th at 140-145 days.

Away from the damage caused by the sliding TMTs and oil stocks, there was little help for London from Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average followed up its overnight 120-point fall with a further 36-point decline shortly after the opening before stabilising as the session ran on.